{"id":139104,"date":"2026-07-14T16:50:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/writers-guild-of-america-seeks-to-block-paramounts-buyout-of-warner-in-latest-merger-challenge\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T16:50:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:50:01","slug":"writers-guild-of-america-seeks-to-block-paramounts-buyout-of-warner-in-latest-merger-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/writers-guild-of-america-seeks-to-block-paramounts-buyout-of-warner-in-latest-merger-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Writers Guild of America seeks to block Paramount’s buyout of Warner in latest merger challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE
FILE – The Warner Bros. water tower appears at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The Writers Guild of America became the latest group to challenge<\/a> Paramount’s $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit that seeks to block the merger on the grounds it would cause \u201cspecific harm\u201d to movie and TV writers working across the U.S.<\/p>\n

A Paramount-Warner merger \u201cthreatens the economic and creative health of the American entertainment industry,\u201d reads Tuesday’s federal complaint, which was filed by both the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East (jointly the WGA).<\/p>\n

The union argued that the merger would create less competitors and give the larger company \u201cboth the incentive and the ability\u201d to lower wages and the number of projects that offer workers employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposed combined entity would be the largest employer of writers, with tremendous power to suppress our wages, eliminate opportunities for emerging writers, cut jobs across the industry, and produce less programming,” WGAE President Tom Fontana said in a statement.<\/p>\n

A Warner-Paramount tie-up would bring together two of the five last legacy studios<\/a> in Hollywood. It would also mean<\/a> putting Warner\u2019s HBO Max, its libraries filled with popular titles like \u201cHarry Potter\u201d and even CNN<\/a> under the same roof of Paramount-owned CBS, movies like \u201cTop Gun\u201d and the Paramount+ streaming service.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s complaint alleges that the merger violates antitrust law by reducing competition in three markets for writers: writing for episodic TV and streaming series, TV writing deals overall and screenwriting for the biggest theatrical films.<\/p>\n

In response, Skydance-owned Paramount maintained that a combined Warner-Paramount would allow the company to \u201cexpand opportunities for writers, not shrink them.\u201d It also reiterated pledges to release at least 30 movies a year<\/a> with a 45-day window exclusive to theaters \u2014 and said it would continue to commission from independent production companies while maintaining \u201ctwo distinct film studios.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA stronger Hollywood only means something if it\u2019s stronger for the writers who power it,” the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The WGA’s complaint arrives a day after 12 states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit challenging the deal<\/a>, alleging that it would \u201cextinguish competition\u201d in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for moviegoers and cable TV customers nationwide.<\/p>\n

The coalition of states called on Warner and Paramount to not close the merger until after a court had time to \u201cfully evaluate\u201d their claims. But they said the companies quickly refused \u2014 and late Monday night, the group filed an emergency motion in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction aimed at immediately halting the deal.<\/p>\n

Paramount on Monday called the states’ claims \u201cwrong on both the facts and the law\u201d and vowed to \u201cvigorously defend\u201d its Warner acquisition.<\/p>\n

The growing list of legal challenges could become a roadblock in Paramount\u2019s quest to complete its purchase of Warner. Other regulatory reviews are ongoing in the European Union and in the U.K., which has suggested it may intervene. But Paramount has also racked up effective green lights from a handful of other countries, including the Trump administration in the U.S.<\/a>, China, Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n

Paramount and Warner have hoped to close their deal sometime in the third quarter of this year. In Monday night’s motion seeking an immediate pause, the states said the companies may try to complete the process as early as July 22.<\/p>\n

Including debt, Paramount\u2019s proposed purchase of Warner is valued at nearly $111 billion based on outstanding shares.<\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – The Paramount Pictures water tower is seen in Los Angeles, Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILE – The Warner Bros. water tower appears at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)(AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File) NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The Writers Guild of America became the latest group to challenge Paramount’s $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, filing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139104"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}