{"id":981349,"date":"2026-08-05T02:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/981349\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T02:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:18:15","slug":"david-ellison-says-paramount-open-to-settling-antitrust-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/981349\/","title":{"rendered":"David Ellison Says Paramount Open To Settling Antitrust Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paramount<\/a> CEO David Ellison<\/a> says he is \u201cabsolutely open\u201d to settling an antitrust lawsuit<\/a> against the company\u2019s pending merger with Warner Bros Discovery but is also glad to proceed to a trial.<\/p>\n

Speaking for many during the company\u2019s second-quarter earnings<\/a> call, one Wall Street analyst asked what will happen if the pending $110 billion deal with Warner Bros Discovery doesn\u2019t close due to the suit. A group of 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America<\/a> sued last month, and a federal judge just prior to the earnings<\/a> call set a trial date<\/a> in March. The case, which has moved forward after the judge showed initial support for the complaint, has put the merger on hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are absolutely open to finding a solution out of court but believe we will win at trial,\u201d Ellison said.<\/p>\n

A separate question on the call concerned executives\u2019 outlook for a lengthy delay in terms of Paramount\u2019s finances. As a sweetener of one of its final bids during the months-long contest for WBD, Paramount promised to pay a \u201cticking fee\u201d to WBD shareholders if the deal is not closed by September 30. The ticking fee is estimated to be about $650 million for each quarter the deal remains pending.<\/p>\n

Regarding the core financing for the deal, \u201call that has been placed, there\u2019s nothing at risk,\u201d Ellison affirmed. \u201cWe\u2019re confident we\u2019ll close the transaction, and we\u2019re working towards that as fast as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

CFO Dennis Cinelli elaborated on the financial impact of a delayed close. He said additional costs beyond the equity and bridge financing funding the deal itself would come from two areas: the ticking fee and a \u201cmodest\u201d fee related to bridge financing agreements.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbridge commitment fee,\u201d Cinelli said, would add up to about $190 million. The ticking fee, he noted, is \u201conly payable when and if we close.\u201d While it didn\u2019t get a mention on the call, Paramount would owe a $7 billion breakup fee if the deal were to eventually unravel.<\/p>\n

Asked about the company\u2019s overall financial state given the bumps in the merger road, Cinelli said he didn\u2019t see any cause for concern. \u201cWe feel good about where we stand in terms of liquidity and managing through\u201d the merger situation, he said.<\/p>\n

Paramount asked analysts to limit questions about the WBD deal. After the initial ones at the top of the call, call moderator Kevin Creighton, Paramount EVP of corporate finance and investor relations, shifted to topics like streaming, film and TV production and technology, with execs\u2019 remarks largely hewing to the company\u2019s quarterly letter to shareholders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount CEO David Ellison says he is \u201cabsolutely open\u201d to settling an antitrust lawsuit against the company\u2019s pending…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":981350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[3227,64,32129,13656,8396,15329,265995,269047,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-981349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-antitrust","tag-business","tag-david-ellison","tag-earnings","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wb","tag-paramount-wbd","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117040506981658154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}