Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen have asked the US Supreme Court to throw out the antitrust lawsuit that 12 states filed to block Paramount Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The 56-page filing names California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the 11 other states party to that suit as defendants, and it was filed with the court on Tuesday, August 25, according to Bird's office as reported by Variety.
What the filing argues
The 12-state suit, Bird and Knudsen write, "burdens the national economy, harms Plaintiff States' quasi-sovereign interests, and conflicts with the federal antitrust enforcement regime." The filing says a small group of states has "effectively vetoed" a $110 billion transaction that 68 global jurisdictions had already approved, and states that the case "is about the legal limits on politicized antitrust enforcement by a small handful of states."
The filing says the litigation harms "tens of thousands of employees of Paramount and Warner Bros., as well as hundreds of millions who watch," per TheWrap. They are asking the Court not merely to pause the state case but to take the merger question itself.
The calendar
Iowa and Montana asked the Court to expedite the case, to require the defendant states to respond by September 15, and to consider the dispute at its October 9 conference. Those are requests, not a schedule the Court has set. A spokesperson for the California attorney general's office told TheWrap: "We are reviewing the filing and will respond as appropriate."
The federal case continues in the meantime. Paramount has agreed to hold the Warner Bros. Discovery merger until after trial, which is scheduled to begin March 2, 2027. Paramount has agreed to hold the closing until five days after the outcome of that trial or June 1, 2027, whichever comes first, and the merger agreement's contractual expiration date is June 4, 2027. From October 1, Paramount owes Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a 25-cent-per-share ticking fee — roughly $650 million a quarter, or about $7 million a day — until the deal closes, and a $7 billion break-up fee if regulatory action kills it outright. Separately, Paramount chief executive David Ellison has said he will move Paramount out of California starting October 1 if the states refuse to negotiate a settlement.
How the deal got here
Paramount lined up the acquisition in February, when Netflix declined to match its counteroffer and left the field. The Justice Department cleared the deal in June, which is the federal sign-off Bird and Knudsen now cite. State attorneys general had already been preparing a suit at that point, and in July the Writers Guild of America and 12 states filed — the states arguing the merger would illegally reduce competition in the markets for theatrical and blockbuster films and for basic cable television.
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