Paramount Sets California Exit Plans Over Antitrust Battle With Blue States & Stymied $111B WBD Merger

Leaks the past few months out of David Ellison‘s inner circle said the CEO would take his Paramount ball and leave California if state Attorneys General didn’t back off on their antitrust suit to stop the $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery.

And now it looks like the ball really is in play.

After over 100 years, Paramount brass have told key officials and stakeholders the company is “deadly serious” about leaving California and the home of Hollywood, sources tell me. Among those told a deposit ha been put on the moving trucks is the L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and state AG Rob Bonta.

“Mayor Bass is focused on protecting and fighting for jobs in L.A., including critical jobs in the entertainment industry that have been a vital part of Los Angeles’ economy,” a spokesperson for City Hall told Deadline today. “She’s been engaged on this issue and will continue to fight to make sure L.A. is home to Hollywood,” the Mayor’s office added, with the core topic being keeping the Paramount corporate HQ and the thousands of jobs it holds in the City of Angels.

Paramount had no comment when contacted by Deadline about the exit plans and how far along they are. CA AG Bonta’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the now more increasingly likely move by Paramount/

What no one can be silent on is that the potentially devastating blow to any already ailing Tinseltown industry comes as the mega-merger with David Zaslav’s WBD is trapped in the legal leg hold trap of the July 13 filed antitrust lawsuit from a dozen states and the Writers Guild of America. Even with court ordered settlement meetings set for next month and a hearing next week over Paramount’s desire for a $1.88 billion bond from the plaintiffs to cover “extraordinary losses” the company anticipates, clearly the wait for the March 2, 2027 starting trial was too much and too late for Team ParaBros.

Ellison’s big move to move comes almost two weeks before the October 1 deadline that had been bandied around in the rumors out of the Melrose lot since the legal battle with Golden State Attorney General Bonta and 11 other blue state AGs over the WBD deal formally went nuclear two months ago. While there are a number of pricey fees in motion under the merger contract, the “extraordinary losses” Paramount have been referring to specifically is the $7-million-a-day ticking fee in the WBD contract that kicks in (surprise surprise) on October 1.

Now, with all the thunder and lightening of a Paramount departure to a red state like Tennessee, the fact is any exit will have little immediate impact on the antitrust suit’s route through the federal courts — at least for now. However, among docket disputes over whether or not an injunction on the deal is de facto in place or not, Donald Trump‘s DOJ weighing in for Para on jurisdiction and the big bucks bond and a possible SCOTUS intervention, the optics are very immediate if Paramount really leaves.

As are the punishing economics.

TMZ first reported Paramount contacting city and state officials with some sort of exit announcement.