California Attorney General Rob Bonta abruptly canceled a planned Monday meeting with Paramount’s legal team late Sunday after news of the session leaked, blaming the studio for the disclosure.
The high-stakes talks had been aimed at reaching a settlement in the ongoing legal dispute. Roger Cheng of TheWrap called the cancellation unhelpful, noting that “settlement talks seem inevitable at this point.” Both sides are now left assessing their next moves in what Cheng described as “the mother of all high-stakes poker games.”
Paramount is eager to resolve the lawsuit quickly to avoid paying $7 million a day to Warner Bros. Discovery to keep a related merger alive. Bonta, meanwhile, faces intense pressure from industry leaders and Governor Gavin Newsom to find a resolution, particularly amid threats that Paramount could shift operations to Nashville.
The $7 million daily figure is a “ticking fee” (also called ticking consideration) built into Paramount Skydance’s roughly $110–111 billion acquisition agreement for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). It is not a conventional penalty paid out daily in cash, but an accruing extra payment to WBD shareholders that begins if the deal has not closed by September 30, 2026.
How the fee works
Under the merger terms, Paramount agreed to pay WBD shareholders an additional amount equivalent to about 25 cents per share for every quarter the transaction remains unclosed after the September 30 deadline. Spread across WBD’s roughly 2.5 billion outstanding shares, this equates to approximately $650 million per quarter—or about $6.97–$7.1 million per day starting October 1, 2026.
The exact daily rate is calculated as $0.00277778 multiplied by the number of calendar days elapsed after September 30, capped so it does not exceed the 25-cent quarterly amount. The accumulated sum is added to the base $31-per-share cash price and paid only at closing (funded by the deal’s equity and debt commitments). It is therefore recoverable only if the merger ultimately succeeds; if the deal collapses, different termination fees apply instead.