Paramount reviews sale of CNN for merger with Warner as an extreme move to relocate its headquarters

“CNN sale” Paramount makes an extreme move to block the merger with Warner… even pulls out the option of moving its California headquarters

Paramount has brought out the extreme measure of a “CNN sale”, a key obstacle to its “mega merger” with Warner Bros., to break through the “antitrust lawsuits” that could derail the deal. It also signaled the possibility of a “headquarters move” to apply pressure from all directions on California, the state leading the lawsuit, as it set its countermeasures.

According to Reuters and others on Dec. 12 (local time), Paramount’s “Makan Delrahim” chief legal officer (CLO) attended the “California Agenda” conference hosted by Politico the day before and said, “We are reviewing all options, including the sale of CNN,” a move seen as a strategic step to find a breakthrough in the antitrust dispute brought by a coalition of 12 states, including California and New York.

Currently, major competition authorities in major countries, including the United States federal authorities as well as China and the United Kingdom, have already approved Paramount and Warner’s acquisition. Reuters assessed that this “state-level coalition lawsuit” is effectively the “last checkpoint” that will block the combination of the two media giants. The authorities in the 12 states are strongly opposing the companies’ merger, arguing it will intensify “market power” in the movie and television content market and lead to “price hikes”.

Earlier, Paramount had promised “the release of 30 films a year” to dispel concerns about market dominance, but state authorities dismissed it as a non-binding proposal. With the two sides’ positions running on parallel tracks, Delrahim, the CLO, fired back with an even more pointed warning aimed at Paramount’s core—“a move of its California headquarters”. This is the first time a headquarters move has been mentioned directly from the mouths of top executives.

He said, “If a decisive moment arrives in which we must carry out our ‘fiduciary duty’, we will have no choice but to seriously consider a plan to move the headquarters to another state,” adding, “If I were the governor of California, I would never stand by and allow the departure of a ‘core company’ like Paramount.”