Three Senate Democrats urged the Federal Communications Commission on June 18 to block Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery from closing until a national security review of the deal’s foreign financing is complete.
Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Adam Schiff of California asked FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to notify Paramount by July 1 that the transaction may not close while the review proceeds. Paramount has said it expects to complete the acquisition in July, a timeline the senators called incompatible with a national security process that may not have finished.
The dispute centers on a April 24 petition in which Paramount asked the FCC to approve foreign ownership of the combined company beyond the 25 percent cap Congress sets for broadcast licensees. Paramount disclosed that sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi would hold 38.5 percent of the merged company’s equity, with foreign investors overall reaching 49.5 percent. The senators noted that Paramount’s request would also let each fund later increase its stake by up to 20 percentage points, a provision they said could push aggregate foreign ownership toward 100 percent.
On April 29, the Justice Department’s National Security Division told the FCC that a separate interagency body, the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector, had opened its own review of the petition. The senators said that process could run until late September, with an additional 90-day assessment possible if it turns up risks. Paramount has said the FCC filing is not a condition of closing the merger.
The letter follows two earlier rounds of Democratic pressure on Carr, in March and May, over the same financing. Those letters cited remarks Carr made in March on CNBC calling the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal “cleaner” than a rival Netflix bid and predicting the FCC would clear it quickly. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez has separately pushed for a more rigorous review. The FCC has not commented publicly on the latest letter.
The foreign-investment fight is unfolding alongside a separate regulatory track. On June 12, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division closed its competition investigation into the merger without requiring any divestitures, concluding the deal would expand competition across media and entertainment. The Wall Street Journal reported that staff attorneys on the case had been leaning toward recommending the department sue to block the merger before senior officials moved to close the matter. A Justice Department spokesperson said the antitrust division had conducted a thorough investigation.
Paramount has said the foreign funds backing the deal will hold no board seats or voting shares, with the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners retaining full voting control of the combined company.
