Paramount, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Writers’ Guild of America will sit down for two consecutive days at the end of October to discuss a potential settlement to the antitrust lawsuit against the pending $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
During a hearing on Friday, Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ordered the sides to meet and provide specific dates for a settlement conference by the close of business on Tuesday. Once scheduled, the in-person settlement conference would begin at 10 a.m. on the days selected.
“A court-ordered settlement conference means the judge required both sides to meet, but it does not indicate a settlement is in progress,” a spokesperson for Bonta’s office told TheWrap. “This is standard course in a case of this magnitude.”
“We appreciate today’s conference before the magistrate judge and the court’s attention to this,” a Paramount spokesperson added. “We continue to remain open to working constructively with plaintiffs on a speedy resolution so that we can close the transaction and deliver its pro-competitive benefits to creators and consumers alike.”
The scheduling of a settlement conference comes as a 12-day antitrust trial is set to begin in March. Paramount has agreed to delay the closing of the merger until five days after the outcome of a trial, or June 1, 2027, whichever comes earliest.
In addition to calling for a settlement, David Ellison has previously threatened to move Paramount’s operations out of California if a resolution can’t be reached by Oct. 1, when it will be on the hook for a 25 cents per share ticking fee, which translates to $650 million per quarter or $7 million per day, until the deal is closed.
Paramount has requested that the states and WGA post a $1.9 billion bond to cover the ticking fee and other financing costs during the delay. A judge will make a decision on whether to impose the bond during a hearing on Sept. 24.
If the merger does not close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount would also be on the hook to pay WBD a $ 7 billion termination fee. The final deadline for the deal to close is June 4.
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