The US Justice Department has closed an antitrust probe into Paramount Skydance Corp.’s $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., saying the deal “is not likely” to hurt consumers or competition in the film and television industry.
The federal antitrust agency, in a statement Friday, said it won’t require any changes to the deal regulators had been reviewing for about eight months.
A group of state attorneys general, led by California, have also been probing the transaction, which would combine two of the five largest Hollywood studios. The states are preparing to sue to block the merger, Bloomberg previously reported.
“These investigative efforts all led to the same conclusion: the film and television industry is highly dynamic, and the proposed transaction is not likely to harm competition or American consumers,” DOJ said in the statement.
The Justice Department’s clearance was expected. The agency under President Donald Trump hasn’t sought to block a deal, instead preferring to enter into settlements or allowing mergers to proceed with no conditions.
Paramount head David Ellison met with top antitrust officials, including Acting Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Omeed Assefi, last month about the deal, according to several people familiar with the meeting. Ellison is the son of Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison, who is close to Trump.
At the meeting, company executives and lawyers argued the deal would benefit Hollywood and allow the merged entity to better compete against the online streaming services like Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube.
Combining Warner Bros. and Paramount would join the two movie studios, two major news networks in CNN and CBS, two rival streaming services with HBO and Paramount+ and dozens of cable networks. Paramount beat out Netflix for the deal after a lengthy bidding war.
Paramount cheered the DOJ’s decision.
“This deal is pro-competitive, resulting in a stronger company better positioned to compete against dominant technology platforms in an industry increasingly defined by intense competition for audiences, talent, technology, and investment,” the company said in a statement. “We remain focused on completing the transaction as soon as possible and delivering its benefits to consumers, creators, and the entertainment industry as a whole.”
The acquisition faces major opposition from Democrats in Washington and many in Hollywood, with actors, directors, producers and writers arguing that the tie-up would result in fewer jobs, higher production costs and less choice for audiences.
The DOJ rejected the argument that the deal would limit options for writers and other content creators saying the “demand for creative workers and labor is correlated with the Parties’ incentives to maintain or expand output.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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