Just weeks before Paramount Skydance begins being liable for a much-vaunted $7 million a day fee to Warner Bros Discovery shareholders, the David Ellison-led company today pushed hard once again for the Writers Guild of America, California and 11 other states to pony up a nearly $2 billion bonus in the antitrust battle over the $111 billion ParaBros merger. In fact, with the implication that they could close the currently suspended deal anyway if a federal judge doesn’t see things their way, Paramount pushed hard on Tuesday. “Fees like those Paramount faces are extraordinarily rare, in part because they are extraordinarily expensive,” Paramount, represented by multiple law firms, said Tuesday in a taut response brief about the challenged bail and the long wait for the trial to begin in March. “It would be incredibly risky to add such fees solely to deter private litigation; if the merging parties ultimately lose the antitrust litigation, the fee payer would be left with a huge bill and no merger,” the company added. “And there is no doubt that this is such a case, Paramount’s lawyers went on to say. “Here, Paramount added the ticking fee in a highly competitive bidding war with Netflix, confident that its transaction was legal under established antitrust laws in the US and abroad and would clear the relevant regulatory hurdles long before those fees began to accrue,” they noted of the rollercoaster ride to get WBD off the streamer and the final deal that received the go-ahead from “good friend” Donald Trump. Department of Justice earlier this summer: Celebrity supporters of Trump: Famous people in favor of the 47th president In insisting on the importance of more than 60 jurisdictions that have approved the merger, although the vast majority of those approvals were limited to the immediate territory of the specific nations, Paramount does not come out to call the states, the scribes and its long-threatened July 13 trial as dirty dealers, but they come very close to unrebutted evidence that, if not. If by the Order, it could suffer $1.88 billion in damages,” says the 22-page document with revealing mentions of the stalled Nexstar/Tegna merger throughout. “Critically, the states never dispute that evidence or otherwise dispute that Paramount will suffer financial harm as a result of the Order, both from the ticking fee and incremental financing costs, a financial harm of which the states completely ignore. Nor do they deny that Paramount would close this transaction before September 30, 2026, but for the stipulated injunctive relief. So, for the purposes of this motion, the states have admitted that Paramount provided evidence to establish $1.88 billion in potential damages.” RELATED: Here are five things in the media mix as the 2026 NFL season gets underway, including the billion-dollar rights fight. Take a deep breath and take a look at the mention of September 30th, that might be the vanishing point here, if you know what I mean. Also, remember that Paramount and Warner Bros. agreed, two weeks after the AG and WGA took them to court, not to seal the merger deal until June 1, 2027 or when legal challenges end, whichever comes first. Changing focus again, the filing says point: “Because Paramount has established $1.88 billion in damages it will potentially suffer as a direct result of being wrongfully banned, the Court should grant the motion.” David Ellison Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Lamenting Ellison’s “old obsolete promise” to release more movies, Bonta wants structural remedies in the ParaBros merger so he can turn around. Whatever has been raised behind the closed doors of the boardroom (which has not included the elimination of CNN so far), it has not become structural enough for the AG seeking re-election. RELATED: Tom Cruise Backs Paramount’s 30-Movies-A-Year Promise in WBD Merger: ‘I Think It’s Unbelievable’ As of today, with no real settlement talks underway, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín has a hearing scheduled for September 24 to discuss the bonus issue. Also on the out-of-court calendar is the Oct. 1 date when fees of more than $635 million per quarter begin. FYI: That October 1 date is the same date that Paramount has reportedly given for settlement talks to begin or they may begin considering a corporate move from the blue state of California to a red state. Now, in light of Iowa and Montana’s decision to take the entire dispute to the Supreme Court, Bonta and his team have already called rumors about Paramount’s relocation “blackmail.” A highly publicized deal meeting was scuttled at the last minute by Meta and Nexstar/Tegna fighting Golden State AG amid accusations that Paramount was leaking details of confidential discussions. An accusation that Paramount denies. Getty Images The battle lines and alliances are clearly drawn with everyone from Tom Cruise to the current and next governor of CA, the DGA led by Christopher Nolan, IATSE, Ari Emanuel and everyone else offering encouragement to lay down swords and reach a deal. On the other hand, as big names join Block the Merger activists, another report presented to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors warns of possible large job losses for the region if the deal goes through. The Department of Economic Opportunity adds to the doom and gloom by predicting that the megamerger could cost Los Angeles County billions in wages and hundreds of millions in tax revenue. With all that as a backdrop, Paramount said in a separate statement Tuesday that “if plaintiffs insist that this transaction be halted while the lawsuit is pending, they must accept the financial consequences if their challenge ultimately fails.” They added: “Paramount agreed to delay closing to facilitate a prompt resolution of the case, expressly preserving its legal rights, and we continue to honor that agreement. We are not asking the district court to lift the no-closing order, but rather to require enforcement of the bond protecting our financial interests while the litigation remains pending.” The response from Attorney General Bonta’s office to today’s Paramount report was itself brief. “We believe Paramount’s motion is without merit and look forward to presenting our case to the court at the hearing on September 24,” the state Department of Justice said. Having emerged just weeks ago in its efforts to get a faster trial in its challenge by the coalition of state attorneys general led by Rob Bonta and the scribes union, Paramount on Aug. 17 asked its merger opponents to hand over some cash. Cash designed for the multibillion-dollar company and its owners to cover “extraordinary losses” from the long wait for a ruling on ParaBros Yes or ParaBros No. “With trial now scheduled for March 2027, approximately four months after Defendants’ proposed trial date, and more than half a year away, Paramount seeks the bail to which it is entitled by law,” the company once owned by Shari Redstone wrote in its motion last month. Needless to say, AG Bonta, New York AG Letitia James, the WGA and the rest of the hurdles took a very different stance. “Whatever regret Paramount may feel about its commitments to Warner Bros., to the Plaintiff States, to the WGA1, and to the Court, it cannot demonstrate that the Court acted ‘improvidently’ in signing the joint stipulation,” the WGA and the 12 AGs responded on September 1. “Nor can Paramount demonstrate why the public or a nonprofit union should support its acquisition of Warner Bros.” “Alternatively, if the Court grants Paramount’s motion, it should impose a nominal bond of $10,000.” It would be a joke if anyone still laughed at this bitter confrontation.
