Paramount’s Acquisition Of Warner Bros. Discovery Update – TKO CEO Ari Emanuel Argues In Favor of Paramount Buying WBD Since It Could Save Hollywood

As noted before, Warner Bros Discovery announced this past April that their shareholders had voted in approval of Paramount Skydance’s acquisition deal for the company. The United States Department of Justice had officially approved Paramount’s acquisition deal this past June. Several state attorneys filed a joint lawsuit and the Writer’s Guild of America also filed a lawsuit earlier this month against Paramount to try to prevent the acquisition deal. Paramount agreed to put their deal on hold till either June of 2027 or until the lawsuits are resolved. WBD is the current media broadcast partner of AEW.

The Wall Street Journal recently released a new op-ed article written by TKO Group CEO Ari Emanuel.

In the article, Emanuel argued in favor of Paramount’s deal and claimed the state attorneys’ joint lawsuit attempting to block it puts it all at serious risk.

Emanuel also claimed that the state attorneys current actions threatens to destroy competition and not protect it as they had claimed in their lawsuit.

Portion of Emanuel’s op-ed article:

“The lawsuit by California’s Rob Bonta and 11 other state attorneys general to block the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance puts it all at risk. They say they are protecting competition. Their actions threaten to destroy it.

You know an antitrust case is trash when it ignores some of the fastest-growing competitors in the market. In their analysis, the state attorneys general pretend Amazon MGM, A24 and Lionsgate don’t exist and that Netflix isn’t leaning into theatrical films with its coming release of Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” (which I suspect will whet its appetite for more).

The real threat to competition is what happens if the attorneys general succeed. Warner Bros. Discovery ended 2025 with $29 billion in net debt and declining revenue. Does anyone believe it will be able to invest in films and television? More to the point, does anyone believe it wouldn’t sell its key assets to companies that aren’t committed to theatrical exhibition?

Paramount can likely remain a competitor on its own thanks to David Ellison’s passion for filmmaking. But it will be a smaller company, without the ability to scale Paramount+, which means it can’t spread the cost of content across a larger audience and commission the additional films and series that a global platform requires.

Let me conclude with some blunt talk. I am a lifelong Democrat, as are many of my friends and, yes, family. I hear the passionate concerns about CNN and the politics surrounding this transaction. But antitrust law can’t be a tool for settling arguments, whether wielded by a Democrat or Republican. Those issues should be debated directly and on their own merits.

When government officials manipulate markets to reach political outcomes, antitrust stops protecting competition and starts threatening it. The attorneys general should drop this case and get back to enforcing the laws as they are written. Let Hollywood creatives get back to trying to rip each other’s heads off at the box office, in streaming, online and everywhere else we compete. It’s what we’re best at.”

Paramount’s Paramount+ is the current streaming home of TKO’s UFC and Zuffa Boxing and TKO is the parent company of WWE.