Paramount’s planned takeover of Warner Bros takes a step closer, as the European Commission is expected to approve the deal. Update: Barring a late upset, it’s now looking as though Paramount Skydance’s multi-billion dollar takeover of Warner Bros will complete later this year. Following its analysis of the merger, the European Commission is expected to ... Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros approved by more global territories
Paramount’s planned takeover of Warner Bros takes a step closer, as the European Commission is expected to approve the deal.
Update: Barring a late upset, it’s now looking as though Paramount Skydance’s multi-billion dollar takeover of Warner Bros will complete later this year.
Following its analysis of the merger, the European Commission is expected to offer its stamp of approval according to the Financial Times (via THR). It’s one of several hurdles the deal has to clear before it can go through, as anti-competition watchdogs in various countries around the world decide whether or not the merger would infringe their local laws.
There has been much opposition to the deal from within Hollywood itself, with critics arguing that it’ll see the industry shrink and result in fewer job opportunities and fewer films being made. Paramount has argued that, with big tech muscling into the industry – Amazon, Apple Netflix – it has no choice but to grow into a multi-headed behemoth.
History does come with a warning for Warner’s buyers, however: mergers with the storied company have often turned sour in the recent past.
More news on this as it comes in.
Our original story follows…
15th June 2026: Paramount’s long-in-the-works merger with Warner Bros has taken another step closer to actually happening. The US Department of Justice has given the go ahead for Paramount Skydance to take over Warner Bros Discovery (to give them their longer names) in a deal worth around $111bn.
It’s a significant moment for the potentially industry-changing deal, but not a surprising one. Paramount’s boss is David Ellison, son of billionaire and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. The Ellisons have close connections to US President Donald Trump, so the firm was unlikely to have a hard time getting the deal approved by the DoJ.
This is all in spite of vocal opposition from hundreds of Hollywood filmmakers, who in April signed an open letter warning that yet another merger will see the industry shrink yet further – resulting in fewer films being made, fewer jobs, and an even smaller number of people deciding who gets to make those films in the first place.
The Ellisons have long insisted that the merger will be a good thing for Hollywood, though a quick look at Warner Bros’ recent history suggests that buyouts like this tend to lead to hundreds of lost jobs and financial chaos.
From an executive’s standpoint, the merger probably is a good thing. Warner Bros boss David Zaslav, for example, whose time at the company will likely be remembered for a bunch of films being deleted as a tax write-off, will receive an estimated payoff of $700m once the deal go through.
Not that the merger is a definite just yet. The deal will still be scrutinised by other countries’ regulators, such as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Massive mergers like this have gone through in the past, though – see Microsoft’s $68.7bn purchase of Activision Blizzard in 2023.
By the end of the year, Warner Bros will likely have been swallowed up. The US film industry will have become a bit smaller, and a tiny group of people will be an awful lot richer.
