Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Set to Close Next Week After Judge OKs Settlement With State AGs
Article excerpt
By Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Paramount chief David Ellison, after a fierce year-long battle, is finally about to get his hands on Warner Bros. Discovery - in the most expensive takeover in Hollywood history. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who is overseeing the antitrust case aimed at blocking the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal approved Paramount’s settlement with the 12 Democratic state attorneys general who brought the case to resolve the litigation. Paramount has tentatively set next Tuesday, Oct. 6, to close the merger, according to regulatory filings. The order approving the settlement by Martínez-Olguín was the final remaining barrier to Paramount’s debt-fueled $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, after it had been cleared by regulators in 68 jurisdictions worldwide including the Justice Department. “[T]he Court finds the proposed consent decree represents a reasonable factual and legal resolution of the dispute,” Martínez-Olguín wrote in her order. She determined that the proposed settlement agreement “reflects a procedurally sound resolution.” “The parties reached their agreement following highly contested, however brief, litigation, and they reached their agreement following what they report to have been several rounds of in-depth negotiations,” the judge wrote. The merged Paramount-WBD will bring together two of...
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Other top WBD execs anticipated to exit include chief revenue and strategy officer Bruce Campbell and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels.
