FCC Chair Brendan Carr calls states’ challenge to – Business News
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr slammed a multistate effort to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying, “This really isn’t a legitimate antitrust case.”
He voiced doubt Wednesday that a coalition of 12 state attorneys basic led by California will prevail of their challenge to the $110 billion deal.
“I doubt it,” Carr stated when requested whether or not the states’ lawsuit would succeed during the Hill Nation Summit in Washington, DC.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr dismissed the states’ challenge to the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, saying “this really isn’t a legitimate antitrust case.” The Hill
He cited information experiences that California had thought-about dropping its antitrust litigation if CNN have been spun off from the mixed company.
“There was a story that broke a couple weeks ago that said that California was floating the idea, according to news reports, of dropping all of the antitrust litigation if there was one condition that was met, which is that the purchase involved the spinning off of CNN,” Carr stated.
“Now, I don’t understand what antitrust theory you have that says there’s a problem with this acquisition that is made or broken based on one cable channel being included,” he added.
“So I think that’s a bit of a tell that this really isn’t a legitimate antitrust case, but ultimately that’ll be up for the courts to decide.”
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is pursuing the company’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery because it faces a lawsuit from 12 states. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
The feedback got here two days after a coalition of 12 state attorneys basic, led by California, sued to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The lawsuit might show pricey even when it doesn’t in the end stop the merger.
Under the settlement, WBD shareholders change into entitled to an extra “ticking” fee if the transaction closes after Sept. 30, growing the fee of the deal.
A court-ordered delay might additionally complicate financing and different closing situations, including stress on each corporations because the litigation unfolds.
During the interview, Carr rejected allegations that the FCC had accepted items from Paramount.
“I have no idea what the basis for that is,” he informed The Hill. “It sounds like it has zero basis at all.”
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is in search of to full the company’s proposed merger with Paramount Skydance regardless of a multistate antitrust challenge. REUTERS
CBS or its mother or father company, which is now Paramount, gave FCC commissioners costly tickets to the Kennedy Center gala over the previous decade, ProfessionalPublica reported Wednesday. Commissioners recognized as accepting the tix didn’t remark to the outlet.
The states argue the mixture would cut back competitors in theatrical movie distribution and cable tv programming, giving the mixed company higher leverage over film theaters and pay-TV distributors whereas main to increased costs, fewer movies and diminished investment in content material.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta argues the proposed media megamerger would violate federal antitrust law. REUTERS
The coalition — consisting of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington, as well as to California — is in search of a non permanent restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the businesses from closing the transaction whereas the case proceeds.
Separately, Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Public Integrity Project on Tuesday filed a shareholder by-product lawsuit in Delaware in search of to block Paramount’s acquisition of WBD.
The swimsuit, introduced on behalf of Paramount shareholder Paul Robbins, alleges that CEO David Ellison and different company insiders breached their fiduciary duties by trading the editorial independence of CBS and CNN for favorable remedy from the Trump administration.
The defendants haven’t responded to the allegations in court docket.
We have been informed this merger was inevitable. We have been informed preventing it was unimaginable.But when employees, shoppers and communities arrange, people energy can beat billionaire energy.This week, the struggle to #BlockTheMerger took a main step ahead.— Nithya Raman (@nithyavraman) July 15, 2026
Paramount has privately floated commitments to keep its studio operations in California as half of discussions with state officers, whereas experiences citing unnamed sources stated the company was weighing transferring operations out of the state if the merger have been blocked or delayed.
The legal battle has already sparked a recruiting effort from Tennessee.
Republican Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter wrote to Paramount CEO David Ellison inviting the company to relocate its headquarters, pitching Tennessee’s low-tax, business-friendly setting as California presses its antitrust challenge.
Paramount has not publicly introduced plans to relocate.
The Post has sought remark from Bonta.
Los Angeles City councilwoman and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman, whose husband, Vali Chandrasekaran, is a tv author and producer, praised California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the opposite state attorneys basic for suing to block the merger, calling it “a major step forward” for the “#BlockTheMerger” marketing campaign.
In posts on X, Raman, a Dem, argued the merger “hurts Angelenos” and warned it could lead to “higher prices, fewer productions, less creative freedom and fewer jobs.”
