Britain's antitrust watchdog cleared the Warner Bros Discovery takeover on Thursday, and the culture secretary declined to intervene after winning guarantees on Channel 5. That leaves the United States as the main hurdle, with the states' antitrust case set for trial in March.
Paramount, run by chief executive David Ellison, is seeking to buy Warner Bros. in a $111 billion deal. State attorneys general are suing to block it on antitrust grounds, and the question of who controls CNN is part of the dispute.
Britain's antitrust watchdog cleared Paramount Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros Discovery on Thursday, and culture secretary Lisa Nandy said she would not intervene after securing guarantees on Channel 5. The deal is put at $110 billion by the Financial Times and the South China Morning Post and at $81 billion by the Wall Street Journal, and it still faces a key hurdle in the United States.
A judge scheduled a March trial in the antitrust lawsuit brought by state attorneys general against Paramount's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros., after the company had requested a November date. Chief executive David Ellison defended the deal, saying it would preserve editorial independence and would not create market dominance, and argued that opposition stems from the prospect of his controlling CNN.