Ellison defends $111 billion Paramount-Warner deal as suits delay close
What's next: Paramount has pushed the merger closing into next year as California's antitrust case and a Writers Guild lawsuit move ahead.
Paramount CEO David Ellison publicly defended his planned $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing the combined company would still hold less than 20% of Americans' TV viewing time and 18% of the domestic box office over the past year. In a New York Times guest essay, Ellison framed the dispute less as a market-share fight than a test of whether he can be trusted to oversee CNN. The deal has cleared review by the European Union and the U.S. Justice Department, but it remains tied up by an antitrust suit led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a separate case from the Writers Guild of America. Paramount recently agreed to delay the merger's closing until next year.