Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Delayed as Judge OKs Rivals’ Request to Block Settlement

A Biden-Appointed judge in California has thrown another roadblock into the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery by granting permission for opponents of the deal time to weigh-in about their objections to the merger.

The merger has been delayed yet again after District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin made her ruling on Thursday, granting the administrative motions to file amicus briefs before the merger is allowed to proceed, according to Deadline.

Judge Martinez-Olguin, appointed to the bench by Joe Biden in 2023, gave the opponents of the merger until 12:01 a.m. on September 25 to file their friend of the court briefs.

The ruling means that the merger is blocked for yet another day.

Opponents say, the attorneys general “failed to adequately represent the public interest,” Free Press co-CEO Jessica J. González, co-counsel for Block the Merger said. “The consent decree is weak and unenforceable,” he added.

The delay could end up costing Paramount more than $630 million a quarter.

That fee was the main reason Paramount and Warners fought the request before Judge Martinez-Olguin issued her ruling.

They argued that outside groups should not be allowed to stop the deal which would “inflicting massive harm on Paramount.”

Paramount also insisted that their settlement with the 12 Attorneys General is “both procedurally and substantively fair” and was reached after “after extensive and difficult negotiations.”

“Twelve state attorneys general and Defendants reached an arm’s length agreement after extensive and difficult negotiations, resolving the litigation risk that each side faced,” Paramount’s lawyers said, adding “All parties involved were represented by sophisticated and competent counsel. As described in the parties’ joint motion, the proposed consent decree ‘includes significant relief in each of the three relevant markets alleged in the Complaint.’ The fact that non-parties would have preferred different terms or a different resolution does not change this analysis, particularly because the proposed consent decree only binds the parties that consented to it.”

Ellison said he thought that the deal should come to fruition in about two weeks, but now the studio is once against in threat of a $7 million a day ticking fee to Warner shareholders for the delay.

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