Justice Department Approves Paramount’s Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover Without Any Strings Attached

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has reportedly cleared a big regulatory hurdle in advancing toward completing its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Justice Department‘s Antitrust Division has approved the deal, as first reported by Politico. The agency is giving the green light to the Paramount-WBD tie-up without requiring “any divestitures, behavioral remedies or concessions,” according to the report.

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After an extensive review, “DOJ officials determined the transaction did not pose a threat to competition and declined to challenge it,” Politico reported, citing anonymous sources.

Reps for Paramount and the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The DOJ Antitrust Division approval of the Paramount-Warner Bros. pact is expected to be officially announced Friday.

There’s been major backlash in the industry to the megadeal, which would bring bring together Paramount assets including CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures and Paramount+ with WBD’s HBO and HBO Max, Warner Bros. Pictures, CNN, TNT, TBS, HGTV and more. Paramount execs have said they anticipate achieving more than $6 billion in cost savings through the merger — indicating big layoffs would ensue.

To date, more than 5,500 filmmakers, actors and other Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter opposing the deal, arguing that it would eliminate jobs, raise prices and reduce competition. Organizers of the BlockTheMerger.com open letter include the Writers Guild of America (WGA), while the Teamsters had urged the DOJ to block the Paramount-WBD deal unless Paramount agreed to “substantial and enforceable safeguards” against job cuts and committed to supporting increased U.S. production.