WGA filing lawsuit to block Paramounts $81B WBD merger in latest acquisition challenge

The Writers Guild of America became the latest group to challenge Paramount’s $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.Discovery on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit that seeks to block the merger on the grounds it would cause “specific harm” to movie and TV writers working across the U.S.A Paramount-Warner merger “threatens the economic and creative health of the American entertainment industry,” reads Tuesday’s federal complaint, which was filed by both the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East (jointly the WGA).The union argued that the merger would create less competitors and give the larger company “both the incentive and the ability” to lower wages and the number of projects that offer workers employment.“This proposed combined entity would be the largest employer of writers, with tremendous power to suppress our wages, eliminate opportunities for emerging writers, cut jobs across the industry, and produce less programming,” WGAE President Tom Fontana said in a statement.A Warner-Paramount tie-up would bring together two of the five last legacy studios in Hollywood.

It would also mean putting Warner’s HBO Max, its libraries filled with popular titles like “Harry Potter” and even CNN under the same roof of Paramount-owned CBS, movies like “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service.Tuesday’s complaint alleges that the merger violates antitrust law by reducing competition in three markets for writers: writing for episodic TV and streaming series, TV writing deals overall and screenwriting for the biggest theatrical films.In response, Skydance-owned Paramount maintained that a combined Warner-Paramount would allow the company to “expand opportunities for writers, not shrink them.” It also reiterated pledges to release at least 30 movies a year with a 45-day window exclusive to theaters — and said it would continue to commission from independent production companies while maintaining “two distinct film st...