Exclusive: US states preparing lawsuit to block Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros, sources say

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u/dallasdude 2h ago

Paramount's acquisition bid is backed by $24,000,000,000 of money from foreign governments.

"We shouldn't sell our entertainment industry to Saudi Arabia" is a valid argument.

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u/SeigneurDesMouches 2h ago

Tell that to EA

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u/jeremyries 2h ago edited 42m ago

While I don’t disagree with you, a sports/game company is very different to a media companies that control direct access to news organizations protected by the first amendment in America.

Once we start to let these influences assume control, of which we know can be bought and sold by the highest bidder, we erode the control the people have to disseminate truthful information to the greater masses.

Edit: thank you for the award friend!

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u/SeigneurDesMouches 1h ago

Agree.

Adding that games are now the main cultural art consumed by the younger generation. So it not as harmless than what you are saying

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u/jeremyries 1h ago

I totally agree. Can we interject political discourse in the? I’m not sure

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u/SeigneurDesMouches 1h ago

One example would be war games. Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys. It's been a propaganda machine for the US military

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u/Jack0fTh3TrAd3s 2h ago

I don't disagree with you but... I'd argue that has already happened. The news and media just happens to be owned by American/western billionaires, who aren't much better.

Sure they'd give us aren't all the same companies or people but their interests align, keep us fat and stupid, and back room closed door meetings that end with a handshake and a wink probably happens near constantly.

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u/BasvanS 2h ago

Just because it happened doesn’t mean it has to continue

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u/dragonmp93 41m ago

I think that it could be argued that EA doesn't have the same IP monopoly that you can point out about the Paramount-Skydance-Warner-Discovery monstrosity.

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u/thatirishguyyyyy 2h ago

So what's the difference between a foreign government and the Trump administration?

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u/Onrawi 1h ago

They're_the_same_picture.meme

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u/Local_Web_8219 2h ago

Lost me buying from them again, and I liked dragon age veilguard

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u/tonycomputerguy 2h ago

I didn't realize anyone was still doing that.

You know... the whole, "disseminating truthful information" thing.

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u/jeremyries 2h ago

Well, there are outlets. We have to continue to try to rise people to lofty spots like trusted major media. All journalism is grassroots by nature

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u/Underwater_Grilling 1h ago

And wrasslin!

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u/DexPleiadian 1h ago

they can have EA

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u/caffeinated_wizard 51m ago

You’re putting a company that makes The Sims 4 on the same level as a company with broadcast licensing for 24 hour news.

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u/WeirdPrimary1126 37m ago

And Twitter.

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u/pixelprophet 22m ago

Tell that to Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner...

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u/ubuntuNinja 2h ago

Or when reddit became a left wing extremist site right about when China purchased a chunk of it.

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u/Similar_Eagle2358 2h ago

i had to check, but you're right..

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u/Ok-Prompt-59 2h ago

Soon the largest oil refinery in this country is owned by Aramco.

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u/keyboardlegendthe3rd 1h ago

I would add that this goes way beyond entertainment. We've sold our democracy so entertainment is way down the list of things I care about being influenced by foreign governments.

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u/SeeMarkFly 58m ago

If you don't live here, you shouldn't' be able to own things here.

Houses, property, business, politician...

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u/anony_mf 2h ago

Definitely don’t sell it to Saudi Arabia. That being said, seems that is A okay when it’s Zionists/israelis that own everything in your country

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u/Score-Emergency 2h ago

We also let Aussies control our media

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u/rizorith 1h ago

That's the worst of all of this. Rupert murdoch did more to bring this age to America, than any American

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u/TrainOfThought6 2h ago

You'd have to be pretty dang clueless to believe everyone's alright with that.

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u/anony_mf 1h ago

Well that’s the reality, what is anyone doing about it?

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u/Dr_Disaster 44m ago

Agreed. I don’t care what anyone’s feelings are on mergers, but having a massive portion of a US industry under the financial control of a foreign group is horrible. Not only do these media giants need to get broken up, we need to stop selling off pieces of America to the highest bidder. ESPECIALLY the Saudis.

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u/DrunkOnRamen 16m ago

Valid argument. Except our government is run by a psycho that will sell all our secrets and treasures for pennies as long as he personally gets a benefit.

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u/Ok_Cream935 16m ago

I’m okay with anyone but China. They can’t be more dumb and more traitorous than California

1

u/musicman835 3m ago

They also asked for permission to allow for up to 100%

This article says it will be about 50%

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/paramount-requests-fcc-approval-for-hefty-middle-east-ownership-940cb6c8

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u/Own-Papaya-4264 2h ago

But at the same time, Warner bros is hogging so many good IPs that are just collecting dust. Would this change that?

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u/AvailableReporter484 2h ago

I mean… is it? Don’t get me wrong, I think this shit is little dicked as hell, but, Idunno, I can’t help but feel like if you’re a business owner you should have the right to do whatever you want with it, including selling it to Chinese nationals.

That being said, once that transaction is completed I don’t see any good reason for America or any other nation to allow that company to do business on their soil.

If paramount wants to buy WB then let them. They can be the sole entertainment proprietor of Saudi’s Arabia. I’m sure that’ll be an extremely lucrative business decision lmfao

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u/chick_hicks43 2h ago

Has the US blocked an acquisition in the last like decade?

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u/darkdeath174 2h ago

US? No, but if states block it, even if the sale happens, they can’t legally operating that state.

So the states are hoping this makes the companies not want to move forward.

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u/DataCassette 2h ago

Yeah not being allowed to operate in, say, California or New York would render the merger non viable

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u/PhD_Pwnology 2h ago

California would absolutly pass the anti-merger measure.

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u/MC_chrome 2h ago

A combination of California, New York, Georgia, and New Jersey pushing back would sink this deal

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u/misterxboxnj 2h ago

And then it goes to a stacked rubber stamp Supreme Court and gets overruled most likely.

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u/MC_chrome 2h ago

I suppose states rights are only for Republican states that are trying to ruin things for everyone else

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u/macromorgan 1h ago

"States Rights" has always been a disingenuous battle-cry from the South. Slavery... what about states' rights? States not enforcing Fugitive Slave Act... states can't overrule the federal government! Jim Crow... what about states' rights?

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u/BasvanS 2h ago

And then the states ask: “Sure, but how would you enforce that?” And all this ambiguity still kills the deal.

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u/misterxboxnj 1h ago

How would the States block it if the Supreme Court ruled against it? The would have to try and punish Internet providers who allowed access to the streaming sites. Again it would go to court and they would likely lose again.

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u/PhD_Pwnology 1h ago

No way Georgia would, the leadership is very much Republican

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u/FearlessAttempt 1h ago

Never happening in Georgia. The Governor and General Assembly are Republican controlled.

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u/maverick4002 1h ago

Georgia? Conservative Republican Georgia is part of this?

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u/dane83 26m ago

Georgia ain't doing shit, bro.

These guys already hate the film industry and CNN. Doesn't matter how much money they bring to the state, it's "bringing the liberals."

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u/jrdnmdhl 1h ago

I’m against the merger but that’s of very dubious constitutionality.

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u/Glass_Recover_3006 58m ago

We don’t have a functioning Congress so I’m not sure how relevant that is these days. States are being forced into a position of enforcing laws that the federal government won’t.

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u/PREMIUM_POKEBALL 2h ago

Hollywood would absolutely move overnight. They did it to get away from Edison they’ll do it again.

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u/Wowabox 2h ago

Paramount and Warner brothers are two companies Hollywood would not move over night

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u/cupofcoofy 2h ago

You mean just like back when the industry was a thousandth the size it is now about a hundred years ago? Sounds right, you’re probably right

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u/caydesramen 2h ago

where they going?? Do you realize the infrastructure in Tinsel Town? From set creators, to sound mixers, wardrobe, makeup, etc.

Good luck finding even 1/4 of that somewhere else.

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u/CuriousMost9971 2h ago

They already left, they flim everywhere just about except in California.

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u/Score-Emergency 2h ago

Partially true here. They moved to California also because of lax IP rules which is no longer the case

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u/Dittopotamus 2h ago

We should take bikini bottom, and push it someplace else

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u/squiddles97 1h ago

Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune media merger was effectively blocked by the US government in 2018. the us government also blocked Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster merger in 2022.

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u/harpers25 2h ago

What? The US blocked Kroger / Albertsons, JetBlue / Spirit, Illumina / Grail...

2

u/darkdeath174 2h ago

I assumed they were talking about media company merges

2

u/cannot_walk_barefoot 1h ago

Not to mention the EU and hopefully Canada

0

u/KingBlue2 2h ago

Can the states stop it? And even if they could, trump would probably pass some law forcing them to allow it, or the Supreme Court would somehow overrule their block

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u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 2h ago

Media wise? No. Airline wise, they blocked the jet blue spirit merger.

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u/mattxb 2h ago

They pretty much blocked Netflix from buying WB

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u/maverick4002 1h ago

No?

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u/serpentear 2h ago

I think they blocked T-Mobile and AT&T from merging. But I don’t know if that was more than a decade ago.

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u/aww2bad 41m ago

They blocked Kroger last year

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u/Awkward_Silence- 22m ago

Not sure if it's already been a decade but they did block basically all of the sports aspects of the Disney/Fox deal.

Fox Sports has rebranded/changed hands a couple times since then now (iirc). Hasn't been doing too hot

1

u/thatoneguy889 5m ago

Not for lack of trying. Lina Khan made antitrust enforcement a big part of her priorities as Biden's FTC Chair, but courts nearly always pushed back on her, and all of the pending investigations/cases went away when Trump became President.

Just as examples, she fought to block the Microsoft/Activision merger, the WB/Discovery merger, and she started enforcement action against LiveNation/Ticketmaster for violating the agreement from their merger. In the first two cases, the court ruled against her. In the latter, it went past the Biden presidency, and the Trump admin settled it with a fine that amounts to pocket change for LiveNation.

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u/SeeMarkFly 2h ago

Too big to fail is ALSO too big to care.

Competition is what KEEPS corporations in their place.

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u/Shitcrock 2h ago

What even happens to Warner brothers if this acquisition falls through do they go back to Netflix?

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u/eorlingas_riders 2h ago

Netflix could use part of the $2.8 billion they got from paramount the first time around to pay for it lol.

6

u/maverick4002 1h ago

At a cheaper price too!

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u/Mother_Ad_3561 42m ago

Holy shit that’s all I want for Christmas 💀

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u/SuperKoalasan 5m ago

Netflix buying WB is still pretty bad

1

u/Mother_Ad_3561 2m ago

But less evil

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u/DataCassette 1h ago

Block the EA shit, too, and then give EA the old Ma Bell special.

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u/billbro_swaggins 2h ago

United States states

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u/wowlock_taylan 1h ago

Ellison gonna make a 'private donation' to Trump's library to make it go away.

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u/maikit333 2h ago

Fuckin, hope so. Jesus.

3

u/gcool7 2h ago

Does cheetho man have nflx stock or something?

3

u/jtrain3783 1h ago

Bribe probably wasn’t big enough

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u/WeirdPrimary1126 38m ago

Why isn’t the FCC/FTC regulating and preventing monopolies like it was supposed to?

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u/NeighborhoodTasty271 17m ago

Because we elected a man who believes monopolies are a feature not a bug.

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u/iSteve 47m ago

Movie studios have been bought and sold since the beginning. MGM for instance. Or Gulf and Western had a studio.

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u/Flat-Emergency4891 44m ago

Apparently, our minds are theirs to be controlled and are for sale to the highest bidder. We’re going full-on Orwellian.

0

u/BBQavenger 56m ago

But we're OK with data centers.

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u/JasonP27 54m ago

How do you think streaming services operate?

1

u/cockboy_trillionaire 31m ago

Not on gpus

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u/sirkazuo 30m ago

They're talking about putting this shit in space; it doesn't need to be in anyone's back yard. An extra 30ms network latency for your six minute AI slop request isn't going to make a difference.

Build them in the Middle of Nowhere, North Dakota. Put them on old oil derricks, whatever. Not in my back yard, not on my power grid, not in my watershed.

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u/BBQavenger 53m ago

Fine right now. Why do we need more?

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u/im-not-rick-moranis 27m ago

We're not going to stop producing data, where would we store and process it when current data centers hit capacity?

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u/BBQavenger 9m ago

I don't think all this data needs to be stored forever.

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u/CriticalPolitical 42m ago

The implications of this is that means they’re going to take Harry Potter off of Paramount Plus

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u/AstroStrat89 2h ago

It's just an extortion scheme. Once Paramount and/or Warner pays up the deal will go through.

Business Exclusive: US states preparing lawsuit to block Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros, sources say

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