Justice Department approves Paramount’s deal to buy Warner Bros.
The merger would create one of the largest companies in Hollywood and reshape the television news landscape.
Antitrust regulators at the Justice Department on Friday approved Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, a merger that would create one of the largest companies in Hollywood and reshape the television news landscape.
In a statement, the Justice Department said it had concluded its eight-month investigation and found that the deal was unlikely to harm consumers because of corporate combination in streaming, linear television, and content production.
The deal would put two major film and television studios (Paramount and Warner Bros.), streaming services (Paramount+ and HBO Max), and TV news giants (CBS News and CNN) under a shared roof.
“The extensive investigatory record reviewed by the Division suggests that the impact of the transaction will be to increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, with benefits for American consumers and workers,” the department wrote in a statement.
The merger signals a quick accumulation of power for the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle and ally of President Donald Trump.
David Ellison’s Skydance took over Paramount last year in a deal heavily scrutinized by regulators. Since then, his mark has perhaps been most noticeable at CBS News, where his appointed editor in chief, Bari Weiss, has overseen tumult, layoffs, and a high-profile blowup at the newsmagazine 60 Minutes.
Politico first reported news of the deal’s approval.
The agreement could still be challenged. Regulators in Britain and Europe are still reviewing the deal, and a group of state attorneys general is reportedly considering suing to halt it on antitrust grounds.
Warner Bros. Discovery had initially agreed to sell most of its assets to Netflix in an $83 billion deal. Under the terms of that agreement, CNN and other cable TV assets would have spun off into an independent company.
Despite being rebuffed, Paramount kept pursuing the entire company — including CNN — in a deal that was accepted in February when Paramount increased its offer and Netflix said it wouldn’t budge.
Paramount Skydance did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Trump and top administration officials repeatedly weighed in on the deal, particularly its impact on CNN, a media company Trump has warred with throughout his political career. “I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace,” he said in December amid the bidding war. “I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold.”
Two weeks after Paramount won its bid, the White House issued a news release saying that CNN was “lying” in its coverage of the war with Iran in an effort to undermine the success of the military operation.
That day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth criticized CNN for an article on how the administration failed to anticipate the war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz, calling it “fake news” in a press briefing. “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” Hegseth said.
Ellison, for his part, has vowed that CNN will stay editorially independent. “CNN is an incredible brand with an incredible team,” Ellison said in a March interview with CNBC. “We absolutely believe in the independence that needs to be maintained, obviously, for those incredible journalists, and we want to support that going forward.”