Judge Halts Paramount Megadeal, for Now - The Tuesday AM Quickie 7/21/26
I wrote about the disturbing testimonies of children and parents inside the Dilley, TX, immigrant concentration camp and I hope you’ll give it a read. - Whitney
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7/21: Emma is hosting solo today. Her guest is Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute and publisher of a self-titled newsletter, joining to discuss the latest developments in the escalating war with Iran.
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Today you’ll read about an army vet who tried to light a federal building on fire, two of the young soldiers killed in Trump’s unnecessary war on Iran, and the pile of money a guy spent making a life-size Charlie Kirk statue nobody wants.
THE BIG NEWS
Judge Halts Paramount Skydance Megadeal With Warner Bros. Discovery – For Now
The $110 billion illegal merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is on hold after a judge temporarily paused it in response to the antitrust lawsuit 12 Democratic state attorneys general brought last week, Deadline, NBC, and the Washington Post reported. US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted their request for a temporary restraining order, which stops the two corporate giants from “closing or consummating the Transaction or taking any steps, directly or indirectly, to integrate or consolidate their operations pursuant to the Transaction” for 14 days. During that time, she will more thoroughly consider the case brought by the attorneys general, who are led by California AG Rob Bonta.
The group argues that the merger would create a monopoly that would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood by handing control of Paramount and Warner Bros. studios, CNN and CBS, and streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+ to David Ellison, child of billionaire Larry Ellison. They say the deal violates Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, a federal anti-monopoly law.
“The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” Bonta said in a statement.
Martínez-Olguín said in the order that Bonta and the others “present compelling evidence that the combined firm resulting from the transaction will possess substantial market share in the wide-release theatrical distribution market” and that, “On this combined firm market share alone, the Court is persuaded that it can presume the proposed merger is likely to violate antitrust laws.”