Paramount Seeks $1.88B Bond Over Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Delay

Is Paramount asking for basic legal fairness or is this corporate hardball to silence opposition?

Published 4 days ago

Paramount Seeks $1.88B Bond Over Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Delay

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Above: Stock photo of the Paramount Pictures logo on a water tower. Image credit: Michael Yanow/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Spin

Narrative A

Paramount demanding a bond from states blocking the merger is basic fairness. The federal government, the EU and the U.K. all cleared this deal, yet 12 state AGs are running a $7 million-a-day meter on a private transaction without proving anything anticompetitive. If states truly believe their case, posting security against being wrong is perfectly reasonable.

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Narrative B

Paramount chose to include a $7 million-a-day ticking fee in its own merger contract, so it shouldn't expect opponents to foot the bill for a risk it created. The states and the WGA didn't write that provision. Paramount did, and signed off on the timeline it's now complaining about. Demanding a $1.88 billion bond to silence legitimate legal challenges is corporate hardball dressed up as principle.

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