Booker Statement on State Attorneys General Settlement Clearing Paramount’s Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, issued the following statement after a coalition of state attorneys general announced a settlement with Paramount Skydance in their lawsuit to block its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The settlement clears the way for the deal to close: “Attorney General Bonta said it plainly: this settlement is not an endorsement of this merger. He is right. He and the attorneys general of 11 other states took on one of the most powerful media companies in the world, a company backed by the full weight of the White House. Paramount answered with what amounted to extortion. It threatened to pull jobs out of California if they blocked the deal, after calling its artists and workers a priority. It promised its own shareholders a ticking fee it never expected to pay because it assumed the Justice Department would wave the deal through, and then used the mounting cost as leverage against the states when the balance came due. “This is what happens when federal enforcers abandon their posts. States are left to carry the fight alone, and even the strongest state enforcers cannot outlast a company willing to say anything and spend anything. That is not justice. That is a price tag. “This merger is illegal. It shrinks two of Hollywood’s major studios from five to four and combines two of the largest basic cable owners—putting nearly a third of the theatrical film market and nearly a third of basic cable programming under one roof. Behavioral promises cannot fix a structural problem. Media merger after media merger has ended the same way, with fewer jobs, lower wages, fewer stories told, and higher prices for families. Writers, crews, artists, theater owners, and consumers will pay the price. “This merger threatens the First Amendment. Paramount will control two major news networks, CNN and CBS News. An ‘independent’ editorial board handpicked by David Ellison and reporting directly to him will not stop the sweeping changes at CNN that President Trump says the Ellisons promised him. We have already seen what this administration does to the press—the President just barred reporters from the White House. “This merger is the product of corruption hiding in plain sight. Secretary Hegseth stood in the Pentagon press room and said he couldn’t wait for the Ellisons to take over. Paramount was a constant presence at the Justice Department once it needed the deal pushed through. But when Congress asked questions, the company ignored our inquiries and refused invitations to testify. On the night of the shareholder vote, Ellison hosted a dinner honoring President Trump. Then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the official responsible for approving this deal, was in attendance. “This administration has turned merger review into a marketplace for political favors. That is why I will examine every merger this administration has approved, and why I will keep fighting to pass the CLEAN Mergers Act, so that no company can ever again buy its way past the law.” Earlier this year, Booker sent letters to Warner Bros. Discovery, Allen & Company, and Evercore, demanding information about undisclosed conflicts of interest in the proposed $111 billion acquisition of WBD by Paramount Skydance Corporation and requested responses from all parties by May 5, 2026. The letters are part of Booker’s broader oversight of the proposed merger, which has included unanswered inquiries to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding foreign ownership implications, and a request to the Department of the Treasury and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to initiate a review of the role of the Gulf sovereign wealth fund’s financing in the transaction. This summer, Booker held a congressional forum on the dangers of the merger, with testimony from actor and advocate Mark Ruffalo; Academy Award-winning filmmaker David Borenstein; Director of Legal Services at the Writers Guild, Michael Isaac; attorney and journalist Katie Phang; and Co-founder and Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard. Each of the witnesses warned that the merger would put tens of thousands of media professionals at risk of losing their jobs and pose a threat to democracy itself. Read the full text of the Allen & Company letter here. Read the full text of the letter to CFIUS here. Read the full text of the Evercore letter here. Read the full text of the FCC letter here. Read the full text of the Warner Bros. Discovery letter here. Watch the congressional forum here.