LOS ANGELES Aug 25 (Reuters) – California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Tuesday there are no settlement talks scheduled with Paramount Skydance to resolve the antitrust suit seeking to block the studio’s proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.
Bonta said he canceled a scheduled Monday meeting after details of confidential settlement discussions leaked to the press, which he said was “unacceptable.”
“If they are willing to clean things up …. and engage in a way that is sincere and in good faith, we will be where we always will be with any party in any case that we’re involved in, which is happy to meet,” Bonta said at a press conference on public safety issues.
Paramount has pushed for a settlement in the case, which is the last hurdle to the deal along with a parallel lawsuit by the Writer’s Guild of America. The company faces a mountain of fees and costs to keep the deal together if Bonta’se lawsuit continues to a trial scheduled for March. Bonta and other states have so far won key rulings, giving them leverage if settlement talks continue.
The studio said it was not the source of the leaks.
A Paramount spokesperson on Monday said the company shares “Bonta’s concerns about the public discussions and misreporting that has surrounded this deal.”
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, Editing by Franklin Paul and Cynthia Osterman)
