One of the planet’s wealthiest individuals, along with his son, set their sights on acquiring one of media’s most prized properties. That ambition has now been realized. The key development in Monday’s announcement: Larry and David Ellison’s Paramount has resolved a lawsuit filed by California and multiple other states that aimed to block Paramount’s planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. With this obstacle removed, no significant regulatory hurdles remain for the transaction. The Ellisons can now move forward with finalizing their $111 billion acquisition imminently.
This gives the Ellisons combined control over major media holdings, including two film studios, HBO, and television networks such as CBS, CNN, and dozens of others.
For those interested in the settlement specifics, the short version: the Ellisons conceded very little. In more detail: California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who spearheaded the antitrust case, had repeatedly demanded “structural” remedies to approve a Paramount/WBD merger — which would have forced the Ellisons to divest portions of their combined operations. He secured none of those.
Instead, Bonta’s primary achievement is an “enforceable commitment” that the Ellisons’ studios will produce at least 30 films annually — a promise Ellison had already been making publicly since April. This may explain why Bonta devoted much of his press conference to discussing other antitrust efforts while acknowledging he didn’t achieve his desired outcome here.
“I didn’t believe these two companies should merge,” he stated Monday. “I still don’t.”
The merger proceeds regardless. This validates why many observers predicted a year ago that Larry and David Ellison would ultimately own Warner Bros. Discovery before they’d even formally announced their acquisition plan.
The reasoning was straightforward:
– Larry Ellison ranks among the world’s richest people (currently worth an estimated $200 billion — significantly down from $400 billion last fall when Oracle stock surged on AI enthusiasm, but still placing him No. 7 on Bloomberg’s billionaire index).
– Larry Ellison maintains close ties to Donald Trump: “We have a good relationship with the administration,” his son David acknowledged a year ago — and Trump treats federal agencies like the Department of Justice as extensions of his own authority. If Trump wanted regulators to approve a Paramount-WBD deal, they would comply.
Both dynamics played out over the past year. Last December, for instance, Netflix persuaded WBD to sell a portion of itself to the streaming giant rather than accept Paramount’s buy-the-whole-company offer. But months later, Netflix abandoned the deal — possibly due to anticipated regulatory complications, but at least as likely because Paramount signaled that cost was no object and it would keep increasing its bid to secure the acquisition.
Netflix shareholders certainly didn’t want a bidding war. The Ellison family answers only to Larry Ellison, who is personally backing the purchase financing.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s DOJ approved the Ellisons’ deal in June, reportedly before skeptical staff attorneys could weigh in. This month, the DOJ further signaled support for Paramount through a filing in the states’ lawsuit.
The one leverage Bonta appeared to have was time: the longer the deal dragged on, the more pressure the Ellisons would face for various reasons. But David Ellison countered with tactics pressuring Bonta and his state: primarily, a series of news reports claiming Ellison was preparing to relocate at least part of Paramount outside California.
Whether Ellison was genuinely serious about this — or how he’d reconcile his professed love for Hollywood with plans to leave, which could complicate dealmaking with Hollywood talent — remains uncertain. Bonta says potential relocation plans didn’t influence his settlement decision — but he also noted the settlement doesn’t include a commitment to remain in California. So this scenario could repeat.
Could Bonta have negotiated better and extracted meaningful concessions from Paramount? Perhaps. But the fact that he delayed the deal for months doesn’t mean he was ever likely to stop it entirely — something he admits he would prefer in an ideal world.
Regulators and politicians worldwide — not just those aligned with Donald Trump — approved the transaction. The Ellisons possess nearly unlimited financial resources. Rob Bonta and other state attorneys general were never going to halt it.