{"id":1105231,"date":"2026-07-22T20:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1105231\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:33:17","slug":"european-union-approves-81-billion-paramount-warner-bros-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1105231\/","title":{"rendered":"European Union approves $81 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission approved the merger of Paramount Skydance <\/a>and Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday, clearing the way for the acquisition in the European Union<\/a> just days after the process stalled<\/a> in the United States because of pending litigation<\/a> against the deal.<\/p>\n

The European Commission announced its antitrust<\/a> regulators gave the $81 billion deal the go-ahead on the condition that Paramount follow the concessions it agreed to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission found that, at film production level, enough film studios remain as competitors in the EEA,\u201d the European Commission wrote in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThese include other major US studios like Disney, NBC Universal (\u2018Universal\u2019) and Sony, along with smaller US studios such as Amazon MGM, A24 and Lionsgate, as well as European studios.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the commission, Paramount offered to concede its stake in the British United International Pictures in European Economic Area countries and offered not to enter into any agreements to jointly distribute films with Universal in EEA countries for 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission by ensuring that the films of the merged entity will not be distributed jointly with those of Universal or Disney,\u201d the European Commission wrote. \u201cFollowing the positive feedback received in the context of the market test, the Commission concluded that the transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s stamp of approval comes just two days after a federal judge in the U.S. temporarily halted the merger for two weeks. The judge\u2019s temporary restraining order follows multiple state attorneys general, led by California<\/a> Attorney General Rob Bonta, who brought a case seeking to stop the deal. The temporary pause will continue until the Aug. 3 hearing on the attorneys general\u2019s preliminary injunction motion, which would pause the merger for the duration of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The European Commission\u2019s approval of the merger brings the number of jurisdictions that have approved the deal or not challenged it to 65, according to Paramount.<\/p>\n

Makan Delrahim, Paramount\u2019s chief legal officer, celebrated the commission\u2019s decision in a statement, saying the company\u2019s leaders \u201cappreciate the Commission\u2019s constructive engagement and thorough analysis throughout its review.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only does this combination not pose any competitive harms, it actually enhances competition by creating a scaled media and entertainment company with the ability to truly challenge the tech platforms that have come to dominate the industry,\u201d Delrahim said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0Justice Department<\/a> already granted regulatory approval for the merger.<\/p>\n

FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY HALTS PARAMOUNT-WARNER BROS. MERGER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the U.S., the merger has drawn scrutiny from Democrats, who have highlighted that Paramount CEO David Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, a close ally and friend of President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>. Warner Bros. Discovery owns\u00a0CNN<\/a>, which the president is not fond of and routinely ridicules as \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state attorneys general argue that the merger violates Section 7 of the\u00a0Clayton Act<\/a>, which bans mergers and acquisitions that \u201csubstantially lessen competition\u201d within an industry or create a monopoly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission approved the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday, clearing the way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1105232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[51,2000,299,5187,1699,498,6316,2590],"class_list":["post-1105231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-business","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-hollywood","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-paramount"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116965540227362336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105231","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=1105231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1105232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}