Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California who is leading a 12-state coalition’s lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, responded to David Ellison‘s threat to pull Paramount out of the state unless the merger is closed by the end of September. The closing of the Paramount-WBD pact would require a settlement with Bonta and the other states, who are prepared to take their antitrust case to trial in 2027.
“In a span of weeks, Paramount agreed to halt the merger until a court decision or until June 2027, asked for a November trial, and is now back with another attempt to blackmail the state into letting an illegal deal through,” Bonta wrote in a post on X. (Blackmail is defined as “the act of getting money from people or forcing them to do something by threatening to tell a secret of theirs or to harm them,” per the Cambridge Dictionary.)
Bonta continued, “Paramount has lost the plot as it continues to lose in court. It didn’t work the first time — on the eve of our July lawsuit — and it won’t work this time.”
Ellison caught high-ranking Paramount execs off guard last week when he told them in a meeting that, while he is confident the company will prevail in court against the states’ antitrust lawsuit, he’s prepared to relocate Paramount as of Oct. 1. That’s when Paramount will start accruing a $7-million-per-day “ticking fee” payable to WBD shareholders until the deal closes. Ellison told his team Paramount will need to move out of California to cut costs, barring a settlement with Bonta and the other AGs.
However, Ellison has not decided where Paramount might move its operations, indicating how hastily the plan has come together. His shortlist includes Georgia, Texas and Tennessee, an insider confirmed to Variety. Ellison’s threat to exit California was first reported by Puck.
Ellison, on Paramount Skydance’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call last week, expressed confidence the Warner Bros. deal will ultimately close — and he also suggested he’s willing to entertain a settlement in the states’ antitrust lawsuit.
“As it relates to the ongoing litigation, you know, we’re absolutely open to finding a solution out of court, but we also really believe that we’ll win at trial,” Ellison told analysts. “And as it relates to the financing, all that is in place, there’s nothing at risk, and so we’re confident we’ll close the transaction, and we’re working towards that as fast as we possibly can.”
But some observers believe there’s nothing Paramount could agree to that would satisfy the state AGs or other opponents of the deal. The states allege the Paramount-WBD merger will reduce competition in three distinct markets: wide-release theatrical distribution, “top-grossing” theatrical distribution, and basic cable licensing.
“It’s hard to envision a set of solutions that would solve the crisis presented by this merger,” Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Action, an advocacy group that’s part of the #BlockTheMerger coalition opposing Paramount’s takeover, recently told Variety. “This merger must be stopped, period.”
