Paramount Settles States Lawsuit, Clearing Way for Warner Bros. Merger

Paramount reached an agreement on Monday to resolve an antitrust lawsuit delaying its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.Discovery, eliminating the last significant barrier to the creation of an entertainment and media colossus.A group of states, led by California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, a Democrat, sued Paramount in July, arguing that an acquisition of Warner Bros.

Discovery would concentrate too much power over cable TV and blockbuster films under one company.After weeks of on-again-off-again negotiations, Paramount and the states agreed to a number of concessions to complete the deal, Mr.Bonta said at a news conference on Monday.

The entertainment giant has agreed to establish a board to ensure the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News and committed to distributing 30 movies in theaters every year.The company also pledged to spend an additional $1.5 billion on film production over the next five years and guaranteed to increase the share of those movies that are made in America.A completion of the blockbuster deal would create one of the largest entertainment companies in the world.

It would pair Paramount’s movie studio with Warner Bros., which has made films like “Superman,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners.” The combined company would also own two major streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max, and control both CNN and CBS News.The deal would make David Ellison, the chief executive of Paramount, one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry, backed by the fortune of his father, the billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.The Ellison family’s ties to President Trump — which included a dinner David Ellison hosted this spring “honoring the Trump White House” — have made Democrats and many journalists at CNN wary of the deal.David Ellison praised the settlement in a statement, saying it would help attain the company’s goal of building “a stronger Hollywood.”We are having trouble retrieving t...