Noah Wyle spent Sunday night hoping David Ellison was bluffing. The “Pitt” star, speaking at the HBO Max Emmy Nominee Celebration in Los Angeles, said he wants Paramount’s threat to pull out of California to amount to nothing more than “saber rattling” rather than a serious plan to gut the industry’s home base. Wyle added that as a longtime Los Angeles resident, he has a direct stake in how the standoff plays out.
Ellison, chief executive of Paramount Skydance, told senior executives at an Aug. 5 meeting that the company would begin relocating operations out of California starting Oct. 1 unless California Attorney General Rob Bonta agrees to negotiate a settlement in the antitrust lawsuit blocking Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Twelve states, led by Bonta, sued to stop the deal on competition grounds, and the case remains the last major obstacle to closing the roughly $110 billion transaction.
Ellison told his team the Paramount Skydance board has signed off on the plan, which reportedly includes a five-year timeline for moving most studio jobs out of state and possibly selling the Paramount or Warner Bros. lots in Los Angeles. Georgia, Texas and Tennessee have surfaced as candidates for a new headquarters.
Bonta dismissed the threat as coercion. He wrote on social media that Paramount “has lost the plot” as it continues losing ground in court, and told reporters at a Sacramento summit that he views the relocation plan as another attempt to pressure regulators into approving what he calls an unlawful deal. Oct. 1 also marks the start of a $7 million daily fee Paramount owes Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders under their merger agreement, adding financial pressure of its own to the deadline Ellison set.
Some industry observers note that a headquarters move would not necessarily strip California of Paramount’s physical presence; other media companies have reincorporated in lower-tax states while keeping production and offices largely intact. Whether Ellison’s threat forces Bonta’s hand or simply hardens the state’s position remains an open question as the clock toward October runs down.
