Bonta argues that settlement will result in more jobs and is 'the opposite of Disney-Fox' Rob Bonta defended the antitrust settlement that allows Paramount to merge with Warner Bros. on Monday, saying in a 45-minute press conference that the deal includes independent monitoring and will result in more jobs in Hollywood. But the deal does not include the three words — robust structural remedies — that California’s attorney general had said was the goal since filing suit in July. And while he went to some lengths to argue that the deal represents a “strong” outcome, he also acknowledged it was not his preferred result.
Gavin Newsom, Xavier Becerra, the cinema trade group, and labor leaders all expressed hope for a settlement. Paramount also did its best to increase the leverage on Bonta, threatening to relocate to Tennessee and seeking a court order to force the 12-state coalition to pay $1.88 billion for delaying the deal. In the press conference, Bonta sought to downplay that pressure.
He was also not joined by the Writers Guild of America, which filed its own antitrust suit and also resolved it over the weekend. In a statement, the WGA said that the settlement terms “fall far short of adequately protecting writers,” but that it could not bear the cost of continuing its suit without support from the states. William Tong, the attorney general of Connecticut, also expressed dismay that the deal does not include divesture of CBS and CNN, which he said was needed to save “ethical and independent journalism.” “We fought aggressively for that remedy,” he said.
He also said the WGA was not involved in the states’ negotiations.
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