Paramounts CEO has tricks up his sleeve to get his Warner acquisition cleared in California

No one knows when or if California AG Rob Bonta will agree to hold settlement talks with Paramount Skydance regarding its merger with Warner Bros.Discovery – but David Ellison has a “few tricks up his sleeve,” On The Money has learned.One of Paramount Skydance CEO’s tricks, I am told, is to try to portray Bonta – a progressive pol who has filed a suit trying to block the $81 billion mega deal — as out of step with even lefty Dems.Those include Gov.

Gavin Newsom and his likely successor Xavier Becerra, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and plenty of others in the state’s Democratic Party.They all see Bonta’s lawsuit as weak on the law (there are no real antitrust violations in merging two middling companies), and economically dangerous, according to people close to the situation.Their worry goes beyond Ellison’s threat to move Paramount and its iconic Los Angeles studio “lot” out of the state if Bonta doesn’t agree to sit down and settle by Oct.

1 without a costly court battle. Indeed, the Paramount camp is warning that if you’re worried about employment in Hollywood – from actors to writers to key grips – then worry big time about the tech geeks running entertainment, according to industry sources.Traditional studios can’t compete unless they merge and create economies of scale.Otherwise, they will eventually be gobbled up by the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix and god knows what other tech giants emerge.Once they get their hands on brands like Warner Bros.

Discovery, these firms will use their expertise not in film production but in technology.The consequences could be dire. “These actors and writers and Bonta are such morons when they talk about job losses because of this merger,” said a person with knowledge of Paramount’s thinking. “Ellison loves movies and Warner will eventually be sold to Big Tech if this deal doesn’t go through and they can’t wait for AI to start eliminating jobs.”To be sure, it’s hard...