PSKY Reps To Meet Monday With CA AG's Office

Paramount Skydance representatives are expected to meet Monday with the California Attorney General’s office to discuss a potential settlement of the multistate antitrust case blocking its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Variety citing two sources familiar with the situation.

The company has been pressing hard for an agreement that would allow the deal to close. 

The transaction remains on hold pending a March trial in federal court in Oakland. Attorney General Rob Bonta has said he is open to negotiations but has indicated that Paramount has so far declined to offer the structural remedies needed to address the states’ concerns. 

Bonta led a 12-state coalition that sued in July, arguing the merger would illegally shrink the markets for theatrical distribution and basic cable by combining two of Hollywood’s five legacy studios and two of the top three cable programmers. Under federal rules, the parties must at least attempt settlement before a magistrate judge. 

At a hearing this week, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin directed them to name two potential magistrates who could oversee mediation by next Wednesday. A growing list of stakeholders has recently urged a settlement, including the Directors Guild of America, IATSE, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Cinema United, the theater-owners trade group. 

“Earlier this week, you heard the attorney general himself say he’d prefer this settle in the boardroom, not the courtroom,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday.