California Attorney General Rob Bonta is calling David Ellison’s bluff.
After word leaked that the Paramount Skydance CEO told his top lieutenants last week that he will move the company out of California if Bonta doesn’t agree to negotiate a settlement of the state AGs’ antitrust lawsuit, Bonta responded on social media by calling the move “blackmail.”
“In a span of weeks, Paramount agreed to halt the merger until a court decision or until June 2027, asked for a November trial, and is now back with another attempt to blackmail the state into letting an illegal deal through,” Bonta said.
While appearing at Politico’s The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit, the attorney general reiterated that he saw Ellison’s threat to leave the state as blackmail and noted that he and the 11 other AGs do not view Paramount’s commitment to continue to produce 30 movies a year as a structural remedy that could lead to a settlement.
Bonta said the attorneys general would be open to settlement talks but that they are confident in the “bread and butter, black and white, meat and potatoes, antitrust case” that they have presented to the court.
“We’ve heard a lot about what we call behavioral remedies,” he said at the conference. “A promise to behave in a certain way in the future. A promise to make a certain amount of movies, for example, in a given year. That’s a behavioral remedy. Those are typically not enforceable in the way that we like.”
“If Paramount Warner Brothers wants to propose a settlement that involves real, robust structural remedies that address the concerns in the markets that we’ve identified in our complaint, we will listen,” he added.
Bonta did not respond directly to Ellison’s assertion that he has ghosted Paramount on efforts to negotiate a settlement.
Tennessee, Texas and Georgia were all mentioned as options that Ellison is exploring for Paramount’s new home, with the CEO saying that he would move either standalone Paramount Skydance or a combined Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery out of state depending on whether his company wins the antitrust lawsuit.
When asked directly what he thought of Paramount threatening to leave California, Bonta called it another attempt to blackmail regulators, who are “daring to enforce the law fairly and firmly” and to fight for a “free and fair market instead of a rigged market.”
The attorney general reiterated again that the potential CNN sale would have no effect on the antitrust case they are building against Paramount and Warner Bros. teaming up to create an anti-competitive theatrical market. He said that if Paramount-Skydance agreed to divest CNN it would still not be an adequate settlement.
Ellison’s deadline for Bonta to come to the negotiating table is Oct. 1, which is when the $7 million-per-day ticking fee kicks in. Paramount is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars to its shareholders as a result of the lawsuit, which set a trial date for March.
If Paramount loses the antitrust trial, the company is required to pay a $7 billion termination fee to Warner Bros. Discovery, on top of the ticking fees.
“Paramount has lost the plot as it continues to lose in court. It didn’t work the first time — on the eve of our July lawsuit — and it won’t work this time. This illegal merger will result in higher costs, fewer options, and fewer people making movies. My office remains committed to stopping illegal consolidation and protecting a vibrant California economy for businesses that play by the rules.”
This story has been updated to include Bonta’s remarks from The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit.
