What happens when an entitled nepo baby faces an antitrust lawsuit from California A.G. Rob Bonta that aims to put a merger with a slew of obvious conflicts of interest in jeopardy? Well, you threaten the California economy, of course! That’s what is being reported by the folks over at Puck News as part of the latest crash-out from Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison, the son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, and Trump donors who have been at the head of a hostile bid to get their hands on Warner Bros. Discovery after pushing out and buying off Netflix out of their deal.
The new report from industry insider and respected journalist Matt Belloni details that Ellison has told his Paramount staff about his exit plan, IF, the lawsuit goes ahead (Ellison reportedly telling top staff he believes they’ll end up winning) and they somehow aren’t able to settle outright with the state over the deals multitude of conflicts, which might have something to with recent revelations that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr (the thuggish Trump appointee, who has been threatening brodcast lisences and ignoring free speech laws in the proccess) was allegagedly accepting lavish gifts from the Ellisons (could be seen as bribes and ethics violations on both parties) and have made some empty promises to exhibitors about continuing to release 30 theatrical films per year (we doubt that number, given Paramount and Warner Bros. wouldn’t be competing against each other on opening weekends if they were part of the same company, basic common sense due to marketing costs).
There have also been some serious issues about the Ellisons’ handling of CBS News and “60 Minutes,” leaning hard on journalists to cover questionable pro-Trump narratives and even flat-out push fake information, only to fire them when they refuse. So, when they’re eyeing a takeover of CNN on top of this all (American news media outlets being part-owned by foreign government investors like Qatar and the Saudis might not sit well with the public at large), it starts to put into question what their real motives are. Entertainment or controlling a large chunk of the news airwaves?
This possible news media manipulation scheme is sort of mentioned by Bonta himself in a recent op-ed for Deadline, where he tried to clear the air and tackle some of the misconceptions being out there by the Ellisons and talked about the details of their state’s lawsuit against the media moguls.
“Despite the spin you may have heard in recent weeks, the lawsuit my colleagues and I filed challenging the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery merger isn’t about trusting the intentions of one company or one man. It isn’t about trusting that CBS News and CNN will remain independent and credible under one umbrella. It isn’t about the future of streaming. This lawsuit is about antitrust law. It is a straight-up antitrust enforcement case. One that is very cut-and-dried. One that seeks to prevent the long-term structural impact from the loss of competition. An impact that can’t be remedied with a few one-off, piecemeal promises. So, while others may try to flip the script and distract from the facts, I will lay out the truth of this case.”
What ends up happening if Paramount has to walk away from the deal, the Ellisons will have to shell out nearly $10 billion dollars plus expensive “ticking fees” that are expected to start on October 1 (said to cost them $7 million a day), with $7 billion going directly to WBD shareholders for wasting their time and the $2.8 billion they had already paid Netflix to forget they were in the mix to begin with. This money is supposedly coming from the Ellisons personally. Oddly enough, that October 1 date just happens to be the date Ellison is threatening to uproot Paramount from California as per the Puck reporting (via Variety).
You can read the AG’s full side of things in the piece over at Deadline, as we’re not really prepared to drop the entire thing here. Sounds like the Ellisons are prepared to go full-nuclear and move outside of California; however, they end up losing tax incentives like the $37 million Paramount just nabbed from the film commission.
