Paramount, Warner Bros merger paused
July 24, 2026
Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) have agreed to pause their merger until June 2027. In the meantime, they will remain completely separate, competing operations.
Earlier this week, a US federal judge had temporarily halted the potential $110 billion (€96.3bn) merger between media giants Paramount Skydance and WBD, despite the deal already reciving US federal approval.
The decision followed a lawsuit brought by a coalition of 12 US states, including California and New York, aiming to thwart the deal over concerns it would stifle competition and raise consumer prices.
Prosecutors representing the states said merging two major studios would cause “substantial harm on [cinemas], basic cable distributors, and, ultimately, audiences nationwide”. In response, the studios argued that the states had misread the market and that merging would improve streaming efficiency.
US district judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued the restraining order on July 20th. Under the 14-day injunction, neither company can finalise the deal or start joining the companies together.
In her ruling, the judge noted that the state coalition raised “serious questions” regarding the deal’s impact on movie distribution. She warned that allowing the merger to proceed now would make it “extraordinarily difficult to unscramble the egg” if the court decided later to block it all together. She also waved away the companies’ arguments, highlighting that “public’s vital interest in antitrust enforcement” outweighed any temporary delay to the merger.
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