Representatives of Paramount Skydance and the California attorney general's office are set to meet on Monday to discuss a potential settlement of the antitrust lawsuit seeking to block Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
It remains unclear whether the discussions will lead to a settlement, the Times reported, citing people familiar with the talks.
Pressure to resolve the case has increased in recent weeks, with California Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and the Directors Guild of America among those calling for a settlement.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, when asked about the reported meeting, told CNBC on Saturday that he would “prefer to resolve disputes in the boardroom, not the courtroom”. Bonta said his office was willing to meet “if the opposing party in litigation wants to meet in good faith to make a sincere effort to resolve the case”.
Bonta warned, however, that any discussions “will be unproductive absent robust structural remedies on the table that address our concerns”.
He previously told CNBC's David Faber that Paramount had avoided addressing his office's concerns.
″[Paramount] wanted to talk about everything except for what this case is about,” Bonta said on CNBC. “They want to talk about the streaming market, which we don’t allege in our complaint. They want to talk about CNN, which is not a focus of our complaint. They want to talk about the foreign regulators.”
“We want to talk about the three markets that we set forth in our complaint, where we think there’s antitrust violation,” Bonta said.
Bonta and 11 other state attorneys general filed a lawsuit in July challenging the proposed $110 billion acquisition, which would combine Paramount and Warner Bros., two of Hollywood's biggest film studios, as well as their Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services.
The transaction would also create the largest portfolio of U.S. television networks.
“The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” Bonta said in a release announcing the lawsuit.
Paramount has agreed to delay completion of the acquisition until as late as June 2027 because of the legal challenge, with a trial scheduled for March. However, if the deal is delayed beyond September 30, Paramount will owe Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a “ticking fee” worth roughly $650 million in cash value each quarter, according to earlier CNBC reporting. If the transaction collapses, Paramount would owe WBD a $7 billion breakup fee.
The U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division cleared the proposed merger in June, while European antitrust regulators approved the deal in July.
State officials, the Writers Guild of America and several prominent Hollywood actors have nevertheless argued that the merger would reduce competition and lead to job losses across the entertainment industry.
