The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has approved Paramount Skydance\u2019s proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Politico.<\/p>\n
In its statement, the Antitrust Division said that, following an eight-month review, it concluded that \u201cbased on the evidence gathered during the investigation, the transaction is unlikely to harm competition or American consumers\u201d and could ultimately strengthen competition by creating a more powerful competitor in the media market.<\/p>\n
The Department stated that investigators reviewed more than 2 million documents, conducted extensive witness interviews, and coordinated with state attorneys general before reaching their decision.<\/p>\n
Paramount welcomed the ruling, saying that the merger would create \u201ca stronger company that is better positioned to compete with dominant technology platforms in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal, which would reshape Hollywood\u2019s landscape by combining two historically rival studios, has become one of the most closely watched media merger cases during the administration of Donald Trump<\/span><\/span>. Additionally, Larry Ellison<\/span><\/span>\u2014the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison<\/span><\/span> and co-founder of Oracle<\/span>\u2014has long been an ally of President Trump.<\/p>\n The transaction has already faced opposition from many within the entertainment industry, who fear it could lead to significant job cuts and further consolidation of the sector.<\/p>\n However, the Department of Justice’s approval does not end regulatory scrutiny of the merger. Rob Bonta<\/span><\/span> has stated that his office continues to review the transaction and may still file a lawsuit to block the deal despite approval from federal regulators.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Warner Bros.\u2013Paramount merger remains under investigation by the California Department of Justice,\u201d a spokesperson for Bonta\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":151762,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-151761","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/151761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=151761"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=151761"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=151761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}