{"id":1016615,"date":"2026-06-10T02:34:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T02:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1016615\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T02:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T02:34:41","slug":"paramount-warner-bros-merger-to-be-formally-investigated-by-u-k-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1016615\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger to Be Formally Investigated by U.K. Body"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe U.K.\u2019s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, has started an investigation into the proposed $110 billion acquisition by David Ellison-led <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/paramount\/\" id=\"auto-tag_paramount\" data-tag=\"paramount\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount<\/a> Skydance of <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/warner-bros-discovery\/\" id=\"auto-tag_warner-bros-discovery\" data-tag=\"warner-bros-discovery\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe deadline for the CMA to announce its decision on the first phase of the investigation and whether it will approve the deal or refer the merger for a more in-depth probe is Aug. 7, but this could be extended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tUnder the first phase of the enquiry, the CMA will look into whether a deal may harm competitiveness in an industry or region within the U.K., according to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe announcement follows the conclusion of an information gathering process. CMA had invited interested parties to submit views on the impact that the transaction could have on competition in the U.K. and gave them from April 13 to 27 to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn February, \u200cParamount outbid Netflix after \u2060a prolonged bidding war to buy Warner Bros., bringing together major studios and networks such as CNN and CBS in an effort to compete more aggressively with streaming platforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe deal has already been subject to regulatory scrutiny \u2060across North America and Europe, as industry groups including those representing writers, actors, filmmakers and theater operators expressed concerns about the impact it could have on the \u2060entertainment business and consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLast week, sources told Reuters that California, New York and other U.S. states were preparing a lawsuit to block \u2060the deal. On Friday, a spokesperson for California attorney general Rob Bonta\u2019s office said California\u2019s investigation remains active but declined to comment further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.K.\u2019s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, has started an investigation into the proposed $110 billion&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1016616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,2590,16,15,47689],"class_list":["post-1016615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-paramount","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116723480744311592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1016616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}