Paramount Wins Warner Bros Takeover After Settlement with States and Writers Guild

Paramount Skydance secured its US$110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery after reaching a settlement with a California‑led coalition of states and the Writers Guild of America. The deal, which avoids a forced sale of cable assets such as CNN, includes a series of regulatory safeguards. Paramount will spend at least US$300 million more each year on domestic film production, produce 30 movies in each of the first two years and 32 in the following three, and guarantee that at least four titles per year are independent and 20 percent are blockbusters. If the quota is not met, the company will pay US$30 million per shortfall, largely to worker‑support funds. Paramount also agrees not to raise theater rates for three years and will establish a news editorial independence board for CBS and CNN. The settlement preserves a projected US$6 billion in savings, keeps the combined company’s debt at US$80 billion, and eliminates a US$7 million‑a‑day fee that would have accrued if the deal stalled past September 30. Global regulators in the EU and UK have already cleared the merger.