The judge overseeing the antitrust case seeking to block Paramount’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery has set a trial date of March 2nd 2027. The trial is set to run for 12 court days through March 19th.
A final pretrial conference will be held Wednesday, February 24th 2027, and the parties must submit a joint case management statement by no later than noon next Thursday, August 13th.
The date is considerably later than what David Ellison’s Paramount asked for, though a month earlier than the coalition of 12 state attorneys general suing to stop the deal asked for.
Either way, the decision will cost Paramount Skyfance a bunch. As part of the deal’s agreement, Paramount must pay Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders $7 million per day every day starting October 1st through until the deal is complete.
The trial begins roughly five months after that, so Paramount will be due to pay around $1.2 billion by the time the trial is scheduled to conclude.
In announcing Q2 earnings Tuesday, Paramount says, “As it relates to the planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, we fully expect the transaction to close and remain focused on preparing for a successful combination once it is complete.”
Ellison himself says, “We’re absolutely open to finding a solution out of court, but we also really believe that we’ll win at trial.”
The news comes in the wake of Ellison penning a guest essay for The New York Times in which he says CNN is at the core of opposition to the company’s merger with Warner Bros Discovery.
Ellison claims he has voted for both sides and that “when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.”
After Skydance took over CBS News following the Paramount merger, CBS News has been the subject of non-stop controversy.
Source: THR
