Report: Paramount reaches settlement in antitrust lawsuit, clearing major hurdle in Warner Bros. acquisition – POST Wrestling

Paramount-Skydance has reportedly overcome a major roadblock in its fight to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in an industry-changing media move.

Paramount has reportedly reached a settlement in an antitrust lawsuit led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

The agreement, which has yet to be publicly announced, means the blockbuster $110 billion deal is likely to go forward as planned. An official announcement is expected to be made later today regarding the settlement.

Bloomberg reports that a deal to settle emerged overnight, as some of the remaining holdouts in the lawsuit, AGs from Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Minnesota, had come around to the agreement.

Details include an agreement for Paramount-Skydance to release 30 films per year. If they don’t reach that annual goal, they could reportedly pay a $30 million fee for each movie that doesn’t hit the market, or even have to sell off some properties as a fine.

The settlement also included a late addition: independent editorial boards for CBS and CNN, Bloomberg reported.

The lawsuit filed by Bonta earlier this year threw a significant wrench in the plans for two entertainment and news behemoths to merge. A U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California put a stay on the 12-figure deal and planned a courtroom showdown for March 2027.

Had the legal dispute carried into the new year, it would’ve been a costly endeavor for Paramount. As part of the agreement to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount-Skydance had promised to pay a fee of approximately $7 million per day if the deal couldn’t close by the fourth quarter of 2026.

Paramount’s attempt to acquire entertainment legacy brand Warner Bros. Discovery has been a business drama for the big screens ever since it started a year ago. While Netflix had originally announced its plan to purchase portions of Warner Bros. Discovery in late 2025, the deal was called off after Paramount announced its similar interest in buying out the company.

After months-long negotiations, shareholders for Warner Bros. Discovery voted to take Paramount’s deal over what Netflix had offered, considering it the far better terms. But a transaction of such scale in the media world opened up questions regarding antitrust concerns.

Bonta’s lawsuit to block the merger cited fears about the deal’s overwhelming scale, worrying about the consequences it could have both on America’s news and entertainment industries. Now, it looks as though those fears have been calmed in the form of a settlement.

Warner Bros. Discovery has the exclusive TV rights to AEW’s programming, airing Dynamite and Collision on its TV channels. They also have a minority stake in the wrestling promotion, a CNN report revealed in February.

TKO, which owns WWE, is currently under a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal to present UFC events on Paramount.