Bonta: Paramount 'eager' For A Settlement

Rob Bonta said he believes Paramount Skydance is “eager” to settle the multi-state lawsuit over its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, while acknowledging he also has had “private conversations” with Gavin Newsom about the governor’s concerns with the case.

The California attorney general, who has become the public face of the effort to block the Hollywood mega-merger, appears to be on the opposite side of the issue than the governor, who reportedly wants to see the deal completed.

Bonta was quick to avoid any sign of rupture with his political ally in an appearance Tuesday at POLITICO's The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit, lavishing Newsom with praise and declining to detail their discussions.

“I prefer to keep private conversations private,” Bonta said.

He was more willing to describe the tenor of his dealings with Paramount and David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, dismissing Ellison’s suggestion that Bonta was motivated by a desire to block his acquisition of CNN as “false yesterday, false today, false tomorrow. False all day, everyday."

Citing a string of successes in the antitrust case so far, Bonta said his legal team is “very happy with where we are. Literally, in every development in this case, we have won and they have lost.”

He opened the possibility of settlement talks if Paramount approached “in good faith” but said so far he was focused on litigation and going to trial.

Bonta seemed unmoved by Ellison’s reported threat to relocate the studio out of California.

“It is an attempt to blackmail the regulators who are daring to enforce the law fairly and firmly, who are daring to stand up for the rule of law, for the free and fair market instead of a rigged market, and for consumers and workers in the industry by moving to block what is unlawful,” he said.

He said he didn’t believe the fact the deal was backed by the CEOs of AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas — two of the country’s biggest theater chains — undermines his case, but acknowledged he was “monitoring developments.”