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New twist in the merger soap opera
Sen. Chris Murphy didn’t exactly send a fruit basket to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison. In a Friday post on X, Murphy said Democrats would break up “anti-consumer, anti-free speech media conglomerates” if they win power, putting a bullseye on the kind of giant-media deal Paramount is trying to stitch together.
Why this matters for your portfolio
This comes right after Warner Bros. Discovery’s board approved a sale to Paramount Global, a transaction expected to close in the third quarter of 2026 — assuming regulators don’t turn the thing into a courtroom season finale. The deal still needs final approval from the Department of Justice, and now it’s attracting political static that could slow the timeline or crank up the conditions attached to approval.
The backlash is getting loud
Hollywood isn’t exactly cheering from the sidelines either. More than 1,000 film and TV industry figures have already urged regulators to block the merger, warning it could shrink the big-studio club and squeeze competition, jobs, and viewer choice. So far, the deal is starting to look less like a clean corporate handoff and more like a very public food fight.
Big picture
Ellison is pitching the combined studio as a theatrical powerhouse with at least 30 films a year and a 45-day exclusive window, which sounds nice on paper. But when politics, antitrust, and Hollywood are all yelling at once, you don’t need a crystal ball to know the closing path just got more complicated.