The United Kingdom government is poised to step in on the $110 billion Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Tuesday, British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy told Parliament that “My Department has today written to the current and proposed owners of Warner Bros Discovery on my behalf to inform them that I am minded to intervene” in the takeover.
Nandy cited concerns of “sufficient plurality” of views and control of media in the UK and the “impact this may have on competition” if the sale was to go through as planned.
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In the UK, Paramount or Warner own Channel 5, TNT Sports, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, CNN International, Paramount+ and HBO Max, and Nandy said her intervention would be focused on the effects of the deal in her country.
The cultural secretary noted that she has “not taken a final decision on intervention at this stage” and has given Paramount and Warner a chance to respond to her proposed intervention, which has to be in her hand by July 6th.
The next step, if Nandy decides to intervene, would be filing legislation with Parliament dealing with her intervention, and requesting preliminary investigations into Paramount’s takeover by UK media regulators. The results of those preliminary investigations would create Nandy’s basis for a more thorough inquiry into the acquisition and possible mandates that Paramount alter the deal to garner UK regulatory approval.
Paramount began vying for Warner in December. David Ellison, CEO of Paramount, said at the time that his company was better suited than Netflix, who had been the forerunner in the purchase, to acquire Warner. The following February, Paramount’s bid won out, but the antitrust regulatory road meant the deal would take some time to be finalized. Then in mid-June, the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division announced it had approved Paramount’s takeover of Warner.
However, state attorneys general, including those in California and New York, are exploring antitrust lawsuits that could thwart Paramount’s plan.
