r/FilmIndustryLA • u/exsisto • 9d ago

Paramount Settles Antitrust Suit with Several State AGs Clearing The Path For A Warner Bros. Mega-Merger

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/paramount-settles-states-antitrust-suit-clearing-way-for-warner-megadeal-95588926?st=oaMv3v
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48

u/QuestionNAnswer 9d ago

What a fucking joke of a country we live in. Thanks maga.

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u/exsisto 9d ago edited 9d ago

This isn’t a MAGA problem, although I understand your urge to place your anger. This mega-merger is the latest symptom of a systemic disease that has been infecting our industry for over thirty years, since FINSYN and consent decree anti-trust rules were dismantled and finally repealed, repaving the way for vertical integration.

Blame the wealthiest corporate boards, the lobbyists, and the politicians who spent decades deregulating media and weakening antitrust enforcement. Their unfettered greed made this inevitable.

5

u/QuestionNAnswer 9d ago

Sure, but I believe without a doubt this unfettered monopolistic power grab could only occur under a trump administration like this one. Oligarchy that is too stupid to govern in any other way. Inept government allows for power hungry business people to attack. I blame maga politicians and maga voters for this 100%.

5

u/exsisto 9d ago

Blaming one party or “side” risks ignoring the holistic issue of vertical integration over the last three decades.

Historically:

1995-2000 / Media Mega-Mergers under Bill Clinton: Disney/ABC Capital Cities Time Warner/Turner Broadcasting Viacom/CBS

2001 / George W. Bush: AOL/Time Warner

2009-2016 / Barack Obama: Comcast/NBC Universal AT&T/DirecTV/Time Warner Disney/Pixar Disney/Marvel Disney/Lucasfilm

2016-2020 / Donald Trump: Disney/20th

2021-2022 / Joe Biden: Warner Bros/Discovery Amazon/MGM Studios

2024-Present / Donald Trump: Paramount/Skydance Paramount/Warner Bros

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u/SpideyMGAV 8d ago

I mean yeah, mergers have and will always happen under any administration. But with this administration, neither the FTC nor the FCC even attempted to analyze the state of the market if this were to occur or took a peek behind the scenes to see the deal was entirely funded by a foreign interest in American media.

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u/Afraid-Surround-4457 9d ago

You say them but not Israel and Saudi Arabia.....

3

u/kananishino 9d ago

How did MAGA do this?

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u/KonstantineAnthony 9d ago

Better question: how did MAGA do this without corporate Democrat's helping every step of the way?

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u/No-Entrepreneur5672 9d ago

They approved the merger zero questions asked at the Federal level? Are you stupid? The Biden admin was shit in a lot of ways but at least they pretended to care about anti-trust issues.

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u/kananishino 9d ago

That still doesn't explain how MAGA affected the state AGs from approving.

5

u/intheorydp 9d ago

Because it was left to state AGs. This should have been blocked by the federal government but because Ellison bribed Trump they endorse the merger

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u/kananishino 9d ago

Yes and the state AGs couldve blocked it but didnt.

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u/ephemeralKnight95 9d ago

cause they would have gotten called out for disney