California · Supreme Court · Ars Technica
Paramount completes $111 billion Warner merger, creating “Skydance” behemoth
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Paramount Skydance completed its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros.
Key facts
- Paramount Skydance completed its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros
- CNN CEO Mark Thompson and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss will retain their roles in the merged firm
- The settlement with California requires Skydance to set up an “Editorial Independence Board” for CBS News and CNN
- Paramount CEO David Ellison reportedly told Trump administration officials that he would make big changes at CNN, a frequent target of Trump’s wrath
Summary
The post-merger company is called Skydance, taking the name of a firm that Paramount bought in a separate deal last year. The merger was delayed a bit by a lawsuit filed by California and 11 other states. California settled the lawsuit last month, and the other states involved went along with the compromise. Martínez-Olguín approved the settlement on September 30, saying the deal “represents a reasonable factual and legal resolution of the dispute.” She wrote that a typical settlement “does not fully remediate an alleged violation or even necessarily resolve the ultimate factual and legal issues of a case.” It “reflects a compromise of the claims short of full adjudication—compromise that may leave some dissatisfaction for both sides and the public but a compromise that saves the risk, time, and expense of litigating through trial.