Click here to read the full article.
The European Commission approved the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday, removing one of the few remaining obstacles to closing the $111 billion deal.
As a condition of the approval,
Paramount has already agreed to cancel its film distribution partnership with Universal in Europe within the next 13 months.
A federal judge in Oakland, Calif., on Monday temporarily halted the merger, pending a hearing on a preliminary injunction sought by 12 states including California and New York. The states argue that the deal will consolidate two of the top three basic cable programmers in the U.S. and two of the top film film distributors, leading to higher prices and less output.
The European Commission conducted a similar investigation of the impacts in the European Union, finding that the deal will not harm competition in TV or film production, as enough global and local competitors will remain. The commission’s investigators did flag that the film distribution market would become overly concentrated due to Paramount’s longstanding joint venture with Universal, which goes under the name United International Pictures.
Paramount met with European regulators and agreed to exit the partnership, and not to enter into a similar arrangement for at least a decade.
“These commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission by ensuring that the films of the merged entity will not be distributed jointly with those of Universal or Disney,” the commission said in a statement.
The United Kingdom is still considering whether to intervene in the deal. Paramount has already received approvals from some 20 other countries, including Australia and China, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice.
In addition to the state coalition, the Writers Guild of America has also sued to block the merger, arguing that it will limit pay and creative opportunities for film and TV writers.
