Paramount’s CEO has ‘tricks up his sleeve’ to get his Warner acquisition cleared in California
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Add The New York Post on GoogleNo one knows when or if California AG Rob Bonta will agree to hold settlement talks with Paramount Skydance regarding its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery – but David Ellison has a “few tricks up his sleeve,” On The Money has learned.
One of Paramount Skydance CEO’s tricks, I am told, is to try to portray Bonta – a progressive pol who has filed a suit trying to block the $81 billion mega deal — as out of step with even lefty Dems.
Those include Gov. Gavin Newsom and his likely successor Xavier Becerra, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and plenty of others in the state’s Democratic Party. They all see Bonta’s lawsuit as weak on the law (there are no real antitrust violations in merging two middling companies), and economically dangerous, according to people close to the situation.
Their worry goes beyond Ellison’s threat to move Paramount and its iconic Los Angeles studio “lot” out of the state if Bonta doesn’t agree to sit down and settle by Oct. 1 without a costly court battle.
Indeed, the Paramount camp is warning that if you’re worried about employment in Hollywood – from actors to writers to key grips – then worry big time about the tech geeks running entertainment, according to industry sources.