Paramount CEO David Ellison said Tuesday he is willing to negotiate a settlement in the antitrust lawsuit threatening his company’s $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, even as he expressed confidence Paramount would prevail if the case reaches trial. Ellison made the comments during Paramount’s second-quarter earnings call, responding to a Wall Street analyst who asked what happens to the deal if litigation prevents it from closing.
“We are absolutely open to finding a solution out of court but believe we will win at trial,” Ellison told investors. The remark came hours after a federal judge set a trial date for March 2027, siding largely with the timeline sought by the plaintiffs rather than the earlier date Paramount had requested. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín scheduled proceedings to run from March 2 through March 19 in Oakland.
Attorneys general from 12 states, along with the Writers Guild of America, sued last month to block the merger on antitrust grounds, arguing the combined company would consolidate too much control over film and television production.
The suit forced Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery to pause the transaction until after the trial concludes, or until June 1, 2027, whichever comes first. Under the terms of their agreement, Paramount owes WBD shareholders a fee of roughly $7 million per day for every day the deal remains unclosed.
Ellison has framed the legal challenge as rooted less in competition concerns than in his ownership of CNN, telling staff in a companywide memo that he intends to run the network’s coverage “down the middle” rather than steer its editorial direction.
He has also pointed to the deal’s global regulatory progress, noting that authorities in 65 jurisdictions have cleared or declined to challenge the transaction, including a Justice Department review completed in June. Paramount has lined up roughly $24 billion in financing from sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to help fund the acquisition.
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The litigation has also drawn scrutiny from Paramount’s own shareholders. One investor sued Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, last month alleging the pair struck an improper arrangement with President Trump to smooth regulatory approval for the merger. Paramount has dismissed that lawsuit as a rehash of previously reported claims.
