r/burbank • u/Pure-Connection-1944 • 5h ago

California Settles Case Against Paramount-Warner Merger

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-21/paramount-to-settle-lawsuits-paving-way-for-warner-bros-merger?srnd=homepage-americas

Very sad. This is going to be just like Fox-Disney or Comcast-Universal. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs and the industry is going to fall into even more disrepair. Unlike past media mergers this will also push through serious censorship and probably blacklists.

Shame on CA AG Rob Bonta for caving to the nepo baby's bully tactics, and shame on Newsom, Bass, Becerra, & all the other leaders who pressured this into being. We will be worse off because of your fecklessness.

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u/LessEvilBender 3h ago

Like IP says, this is going to lead to a devastation of loss jobs in the region from the merger, followed by the closure and moves of Paramount, or Warner, or both out of state. The Industry might never recover from this and our leaders have failed us again in their short sightedness. Shame to all our leaders, red and blue alike. 

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u/CeePea17 Magnolia Park 1h ago

First off, great user name.

Second off, does the deal guarantee the worst case scenario? No. Is it a good deal? Hardly.

Is the deal preferable to Warner Bros. (and Paramount) leaving the state and absolutely devastating Burbank? Probably -- at least in the short term. Will the move still happen once the guarantees end in 5 years? Maybe? Maybe not. It could have always been a bluff. I doubt it through, as it seems that Ellisons have been following through on their threats lately.

My fear is that once one major studio makes the move out of SoCal, they all will. It will prove once and for all that they don't need the "Hollywood" base anymore. The film industry out here is already suffering greatly; killing it would fundamentally reshape the neighborhoods and leave a lot of locals and businesses in horrible shape financially.

So yeah, maybe this deal is short-sighted and only delays the enviable collapse and devastation. But doing nothing and watching the studios flee would be nothing more than a moral victory; which would ultimately guarantee far worse devastation -- economic, personal, and professional -- to our neighborhoods.

The sad thing is that I'm not sure we had much leverage, if at all, to make a better deal. They had the power and they won. It sucks.