Paramount finally completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. on Tuesday, after months of delays stemming from a prolonged bidding war and a short-lived legal battle. The combined company will be known as Skydance, which was originally a small Hollywood production company founded by David Ellison 20 years ago, has now become a vast media…
Page D2From§Eachthe noon edition — 6 October 2026
States settle Paramount-Warner antitrust fight, shaving $1 billion off a $111 billion merger
As it ran on the front
The paperwork says $111 billion. That is the number on the table September 21, when California Attorney General Rob Bonta and eleven other states announced they had settled with Paramount Skydance over its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, resolving the states' lawsuit and a separate Writers Guild suit the same Monday.
Three days after the settlement, on Thursday, September 24, a Biden-appointed federal judge held a hearing to check that the deal still complied with antitrust law, and the Washington Examiner's own headline that day conceded the merger was "not a done deal." That hearing came after the Justice Department, on September 16, had already filed a statement of interest arguing that the states suing to block the deal — the same Paramount Skydance merger, named as such in the department's own filing — should have to post a bond if they believed their case.…
…(cont) Six days after the hearing, on September 30, the judge signed off. NBC's own account of that approval puts the price at $110 billion. The number had moved one billion dollars, a little under one percent, between the settlement that was supposed to fix the deal's competitive problems and the deal a judge then let close.
On Tuesday the merger closed, and the invoices came in. CBS News, NBC News and the BBC each filed the post-settlement number: $110 billion. The Daily Caller, filing the same day, put the price at $81 billion — a third figure, on the same transaction, in the same news cycle. The New York Times ran no dollar figure at all; its story led instead with a memo to employees hinting at cost cuts to come, the usual place the savings in a deal like this get found.
So: a historic antitrust settlement, negotiated over state lawsuits and a Hollywood guild's objections, moved the price of the merger it was meant to discipline by about one billion dollars out of one hundred eleven — and the record can't even agree on whether that one billion ever happened. The concessions were sized to clear the docket. The docket cleared. Nothing else moved, hon.
“They call it a settlement. A settlement where the price tag barely moves one lousy billion out of one hundred eleven isn't a settlement, it's a receipt stamped paid. Twelve states suing and a federal judge signing off bought Ellison's family CNN, CBS, HBO and two studios, and the only people getting a memo this week are the ones about to lose their jobs.”
“This is the system working exactly as designed — a dozen attorneys general, a federal judge, the Writers Guild, all of them vetted this deal before it closed right on schedule. Sure, the price barely moved, but that just proves the original number was fair to begin with. Did I just say the settlement proved nothing changed? Forget I said that.”
The receipts
Paramount Skydance completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros., creating a Hollywood heavyweight called Skydance and handing CEO David Ellison control. NBC News' Brian Cheung reports on the details of the merger.
After a legal battle, the two Hollywood giants have become one. But the new company is saddled with debt, and in a memo to employees, its leaders hinted at cost cuts.
Paramount officially closed its multi-billion-dollar deal to acquire fellow media giant Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) on Tuesday, creating the largest provider in news, sports and entertainment offerings in the world. The deal hands control of WBD's sprawling movie and television studios, as well as its cable channels and news outlet…
David Ellison and his new Skydance executive team will introduce themselves to the world and formally begin the arduous task of selling the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
Paramount closed its $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Tuesday, bringing CNN, CBS, HBO, Paramount and two historic movie studios under Skydance.
The merger of two of Hollywood's biggest movie studios comes after months of legal disputes and concern over competition.
The merger unites two major movie studios, news operations CBS News and CNN and cable networks including Comedy Central and TNT.
· Judge allows Paramount to close $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Paltry Concessions Given to Secure Paramount-Warner Merger Deal Decried as 'Meaningless Bullshit' from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026
· Paramount Skydance reaches settlement with states over Warner Bros. merger from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Paramount Skydance settles with 12 states over acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Paramount-Warner Bros. merger not a done deal as judge questions settlement from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· DOJ says states should post ‘proper bond’ in Paramount-Warner Bros. merger case from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.