Paramount’s mega merger with Warner Bros. Discovery is officially crossing the finish line. A federal judge approved Paramount’s settlement with the 12 States that sued to block the deal, and the $81 billion merger is now expected to close on October 6.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued the ruling on Wednesday, deciding the settlement was a fair way to address the states’ competition concerns. Paramount had said the lawsuit was the last hurdle standing in its way.
Paramount also announced that Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz will join as co-CEO alongside David Ellison. Ellison says the combined company will be “creator-first, tech-forward and built to scale globally.”
What Paramount had to give up
To get the states to back off, Paramount made some big promises. It will spend at least $1.5 billion more on U.S. film production over the next five years and release at least 30 movies in theaters each year, rising to 32 later on. If it misses those targets, it would have to sell Miramax and pay $30 million per missing film into union healthcare and retirement funds.
Paramount is also putting $47.5 million toward training workers displaced by the merger. It has to negotiate its cable channel deals separately for five years and create a new board to monitor editorial independence at CBS and CNN.
Not everyone is convinced, though. Critics believe the terms are far too weak, especially since most of them expire after five years.
For streaming fans, this is where things get interesting. The deal puts HBO Max, CNN, and the Harry Potter franchise under the same roof as CBS, Top Gun, and Paramount Plus. Paramount has already said it plans to merge Paramount Plus and HBO Max into one service, and that move is now closer than ever.
This ends a wild saga that saw Netflix walk away from its own Warner Bros. deal. The combined service could finally give Netflix a real rival. But fewer streaming services usually means one thing for consumers: higher prices. I’ll be keeping an eye on it to see what Paramount charges once the two apps become one.
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