Supreme Court rejects the last appeal against the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger: the “Skydance” giant closes today

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Monday (5 October) rejected the last emergency request seeking to block the $111 billion merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the way for the deal to close on Tuesday (today). Kagan, who is responsible for emergency requests coming from the Ninth Circuit, dismissed the appeal within hours, without giving any reasoning, as Screen Daily reports, referring to Deadline’s initial reporting.

The request had been filed by five subscribers and viewers who described themselves as Paramount cable customers — Pamela Faust, Len Marazzo, Lisa McCarthy, Deborah Rubinsohn and Gary Talewsky. They argued that the merger remains anti-competitive even after the agreement reached last month between Paramount and 12 U.S. state attorneys general, claiming that “once independent decision-making on prices, programmes, news, technology, employment and investment is centralised, nothing can restore the lost period of competition”.

In industry circles, the attempt was seen as a “desperate shot”, since the district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had already dismissed the case. Last week, District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved Paramount’s settlement with the states, with the Writers Guild of America and the prosecutors, describing it as a “reasonable factual and legal resolution”.

The merger is expected to close today under the new company name “Skydance”, as chief executive David Ellison announced last week. Under the approved agreement, the combined company undertakes to release at least 30 theatrical films a year during the first two years (32 in the following three years), to invest $1.5 billion in American production within five years and to set up a five-member board to guarantee the editorial independence of the CNN and CBS News news divisions. On Monday, Skydance also announced its senior leadership structure, shortly before the closing of the deal.