The Financial Times said David Ellison’s Paramount agreed to pause the tie-up as 12 U.S. states move to block one of Hollywood’s biggest proposed deals on competition grounds.
Paramount, linked in the report to David Ellison, has agreed to freeze its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery as a dozen U.S. states seek to stop the transaction on antitrust grounds, the Financial Times reported. The challenge targets what the report described as one of the largest Hollywood deals in history, underscoring how regulators and state authorities are scrutinizing major media consolidation over concerns that fewer large players could reduce competition and reshape pricing, licensing and bargaining power across the entertainment industry.