In a drama worthy of Hollywood, the sale of Warner Bros Discovery has gone through multiple suitors, a hostile takeover that turned friendly, and a massive law suit to prevent the sale of WBD to its once-hostile suitor (Paremount-Skydance) filed by the Attorneys General of several states.
Due to a condition of their agreement to acquire Warners, the lawsuit led by California AG Rob Bonta could have cost Paramount-Skydance approximately $7 million a day if the deal wasn’t closed by the end of the year.
A trial date was set for next March.
Settlement talks have been ongoing since, and we started to hear last week that a deal to let the $100 billion sale go through was close. Some AGs involved in the suit, notably those from Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Minnesota, were holding out for more concessions. Bloomberg is reporting today (Mon. Sept. 21) that a deal which satisfies those holdouts emerged overnight.
The agreement calls for Paramount-Skydance to release 30 films into theaters each year, and will face fines if it fails to do so. Reuters says the deal with the AGs requires Paramount-Skydance to establish independent editorial boards for both the CBS network/brand it already owns, and the CNN one its buying in the WBD deal.
Reporting on this obviously isn’t focused on what we are, so there’s no mention of AEW’s future (despite WBD having a minority ownership stake). The promotion’s existing deal with WBD for AEW’s television and streaming rights runs through next year, with a an option for 2028. Paramount-Skydance plans to merge WBD’s HBO Max streaming service — one home of AEW PPV event — to its own Paramount+, which is already the home of WWE’s fellow TKO-brand UFC.
AEW boss Tony Khan, meanwhile, has spoken glowingly about Paramount-Skydance and its head David Ellison, and said he hopes the deal goes through as he’s excited for AEW’s future on Paramount+.
Trade union challenges to the merger exist, but Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin told Reuters,
“the unions would have a very low probability of winning their case, so I’d expect that to get settled also.”
We’ll see what twists and turns await us in the AEW/WBD/Paramount drama…
