[UPDATE] Paramount settles with 12 states, clearing its $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery takeover
Paramount Skydance's takeover is cleared after the company settled with the 12 state attorneys general who sued to block it. Shares of both companies rose more than 10%. Paramount agreed to release 30 films a year for two years and 32 a year for the next three, and to pay $30 million for each film it misses. It will also spend $300 million a year on U.S. production for five years, hold its Los Angeles studio lots for five years, and set up independent editorial boards over CBS News and CNN.
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The 12 states sued July 13 to block the deal. An antitrust trial was set for early March before Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín. As of Sept. 20, several attorneys general still had not agreed to settle.
What else is in the deal:
- If Paramount misses the release requirements, it must sell the Miramax film studio.
- Five of the 12 states sit on the committee that monitors and enforces compliance.
- Missing a Sept. 30 close would have cost Paramount 25 cents a share per quarter, over $600 million every three months.