New York attorney general resists Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery settlement terms
Letitia James is pushing for added worker protections as California's attorney general tries to strike a deal, CNN reports
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New York Attorney General Letitia James is resisting the terms of a proposed settlement over Paramount Skydance Corp.'s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, according to CNN, which cited a person familiar with the matter. James is seeking additional protections for workers before she will sign on.
Paramount Skydance agreed on February 27, 2026 to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at about $110 billion. James and 11 other state attorneys general sued in July to block the merger, arguing it would illegally reduce competition in film and television, and a federal court in California issued a temporary restraining order on July 20 halting the deal. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery later agreed to delay closing until five days after a ruling on the merits or June 1, 2027, whichever comes first.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has led the coalition of states, has been pressing in recent days to reach a settlement with Paramount, CNN reported. Connecticut and at least two other states have reservations and are not yet on board, with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong seeking to preserve the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News, according to a person familiar with the negotiations cited by CNN. Possible concessions from Paramount include independent monitoring of CNN's content and commitments on theatrical releases, Reuters has reported, and keeping the two studios' operations separate for a period, according to the Wall Street Journal. A coalition of Hollywood unions and advocacy groups has called protests this weekend and into next week outside the offices of Bonta and James, urging the attorneys general to block the merger outright rather than settle.
James's resistance adds a second point of friction to a deal already complicated by disagreement among the states that sued to stop it, making the path to regulatory approval harder to predict. The standoff leaves Paramount facing a choice between further concessions to the holdout states or the risk that the merger collapses altogether.