Paramount Asks States to Shoulder Costs of Delaying Warner Bros. Deal

Paramount asked a federal judge on Monday to force the opponents of its acquisition of Warner Bros.Discovery to cover the costs of the delay created by their lawsuit seeking to block the deal.The Hollywood studio is seeking a $1.88 billion bond from 12 states, led by California, along with the Writers Guild of America, which have sued to stop the company’s deal to acquire Warner Bros., citing antitrust concerns.

Paramount proposes that it would collect the proceeds from the bond if the states lost their case.Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros.would create a media powerhouse combining two major movie studios, multiple streaming services and the news networks CNN and CBS News.Twelve state attorneys general sued last month to block the deal, arguing that the company would have outsize market power.In July, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the U.S.

District Court for the Northern District of California temporarily halted the merger to consider the lawsuit.She later scheduled a trial for March, a delay that could put Paramount on the hook to pay Warner Bros.

shareholders hundreds of millions of dollars.As part of its deal with Warner Bros., Paramount must pay $650 million every quarter if the transaction has not closed by Oct.1.

Paramount proposed the fee in an effort to win the support from shareholders, who were also considering a rival bid from Netflix at the time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....