Paramount CEO confident on Warner Bros. merger as actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming call for UK to block it

Paramount CEO David Ellison said Monday that he’s “highly confident” his company will win its antitrust case and merge with Warner Bros.Discovery — as actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong push the UK government to block it.Ellison told staffers in a note obtained by The Post that Paramount, home to CBS, Paramount Pictures, MTV and Nickelodeon, has complied with antitrust laws, citing various clearances from different regulatory bodies and governments.

“Over the past several months, our leadership team and legal partners have worked closely with antitrust and competition authorities around the world,” he said.“As a result regulatory bodies and governments representing 65 jurisdictions — including the European Commission, Australia, China, the US, Germany, France, Spain, Canada and South Korea — have either cleared the transaction or elected not to challenge it on cometition and/ or foreign direct investment grounds.”Ellison added that absent the lawsuit filed by 12 US states, led by California, and a separate suit from the Writers Guild of America, Paramount would have been able to close the deal in the coming weeks.“Let me be clear: we remain highly confident that this transaction does not pose any legal issues, and we will complete it and bring these two companies together,” he said, before acknowledging that the deal is on pause.

“For not it remains business as usual.”On Friday, Paramount agreed not to close the takeover until the court decides whether the deal violates antitrust laws.The merger deal expires on June 4, 2027 if the deal hasn’t closed by that date.Meanwhile, actors Cumberbatch, Wong and Cumming penned an op-ed in “The Guardian” on Monday, pushing the UK government to stop the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros.

merger, saying it “threatens to inflict immense harm on the British public.”The letter, which was addressed to culture minister Lisa Nandy, said that her intervention could be “p...