California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled planned settlement discussions with Paramount Skydance after accusing the company of leaking and mischaracterizing earlier negotiations in the multistate lawsuit seeking to block its proposed Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
California has suspended planned settlement discussions with Paramount Skydance in the legal battle over its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, with Attorney General Rob Bonta accusing the company of acting in bad faith after details of an earlier meeting became public.
Representatives for Paramount had been scheduled to meet with Bonta’s office Monday to begin settlement talks over California’s lawsuit challenging the merger. Bonta canceled that meeting after alleging Paramount disclosed information from preliminary discussions held Friday and inaccurately portrayed what had been discussed, according to a statement from his office cited by The New York Times.
“Not only did Paramount leak the alleged substance of settlement discussions, but they misrepresented these discussions, demonstrating a lack of good faith,” Bonta’s office said.
The dispute adds another complication to Paramount’s attempt to complete one of the largest media transactions under consideration, a deal that California and 11 other states are seeking to stop on antitrust grounds.
Neither Paramount nor the California Attorney General’s office responded to Reuters requests for comment outside normal business hours.
The New York Times reported Saturday that contacts between California and Paramount remained preliminary and that there was no guarantee they would develop into substantive negotiations or produce a settlement.
Bonta’s decision to cancel Monday’s meeting now throws even that possibility into doubt.
California joined 11 other states last month in filing suit to block Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The states allege that combining the companies would reduce competition in film distribution and cable television, giving the merged company greater market power across significant portions of the entertainment industry.
New York, Arizona and Minnesota are among the states participating in the challenge.
The lawsuit argues that the transaction could have consequences extending from movie theaters to pay television providers and individual workers.
The states contend that diminished competition could hurt theater operators and television distributors, contribute to higher prices for consumers and reduce competitive pressure on wages.
At the center of the case is whether the $110 billion combination would consolidate too much control over the creation and distribution of entertainment content.
California and the other plaintiffs are seeking to prevent the acquisition from moving forward under its current terms.
The possibility of resolving at least part of the dispute through negotiations emerged when representatives from Bonta’s office and Paramount met Friday.
Those discussions had not reached the point of a formal settlement, according to the Times, and were described as an initial step rather than evidence that an agreement was imminent.
Bonta’s office subsequently concluded that Paramount’s handling of information about the meeting undermined the conditions needed for further talks.
The attorney general’s accusation does not resolve the underlying antitrust case, but it removes, at least for now, a potential avenue for negotiating an end to California’s challenge.
Unless discussions resume, Paramount will continue confronting California and the other states in court over whether its proposed Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition would unlawfully weaken competition in the entertainment marketplace.
Original article
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