US judge approves Paramount's $110bn Warner Bros acquisition

October 1, 2026 at 04:15 AM2 min

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A US district judge approved a settlement allowing Paramount to complete its $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros. The ruling ends a lawsuit brought by 12 states that had sought to block the merger. The settlement includes quotas for theatrical releases and a panel to safeguard editorial independence at CNN and CBS.

Key Facts

US District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin approved the settlement on Wednesday.
The settlement requires Paramount to release 30 theatrical films per year in the US for five years.
A five-member panel will be created to safeguard the editorial independence of CNN and CBS.
The 12 states, led by California, had estimated the merger would consolidate nearly one-third of all theatrical releases and basic cable programming.
Paramount CEO David Ellison will control appointments to the board overseeing news independence.

Settlement Terms

The five-year agreement mandates that Paramount abide by theatrical film release quotas, committing to 30 releases per year in the US. It also requires the combined company to keep negotiations with cable providers for Warner-owned channels separate from deals for Paramount-owned channels. The settlement includes the creation of a five-member panel meant to safeguard the editorial independence of CNN and CBS. Under the agreement, Paramount CEO David Ellison is in charge of appointments to the board that would oversee news independence.

Antitrust Challenge

A coalition of 12 states, led by California, had sued to block the merger, arguing it would effectively stifle media competition. They estimated that nearly one-third of all theatrical releases and basic cable programming would be consolidated under the merger. The states abandoned their lawsuit in favour of a settlement on September 21. In her ruling, Judge Martinez-Olguin described the proposed deal as a "fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms".

Media Consolidation Concerns

Analysts have long raised concerns about the acquisition, one of the largest media mergers in history. Sceptics have pointed out that the merger puts a large swath of US media under the control of David Ellison, who leads Paramount. Ellison is the son of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a strong backer of pro-Israel causes with close ties to the administration of President Donald Trump. The 2025 Paramount-Skydance deal brought CBS under Ellison's control, and he later installed Bari Weiss as head of CBS News.