David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has claimed it has “confidence in the speed and certainty of its regulatory pathway” in closing the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion deal.
But the proposed Paramount-WBD deal is still undergoing antitrust review at the Justice Department — and the new head of the DOJ’s antitrust division said the proposed pact will “absolutely not” be on a fast-track for approval for political reasons.
“The idea that somehow enforcement has been politicized is ludicrous,” Omeed Assefi, the DOJ’s acting assistant attorney general for the antitrust division said in an interview with Reuters.
When asked whether Paramount’s WBD deal would have an easier pathway to clear antitrust review because of political considerations, Assefi replied, “Absolutely not.” He added, “I think even [Netflix co-CEO] Ted Sarandos has been very vocal about the fact that he had a very open and fair and thorough review under us.” In an interview with Politico Europe published this week, Sarandos said there was “no political interference” from President Trump in the company’s bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery and that the president had made it “very clear this was under the DOJ.”
Paramount Skydance declined to comment.
Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison (who is putting up a substantial amount of capital behind the Warner Bros. bid), have been friendly with Trump. Trump, after saying he would be involved in the review of the Netflix-WB pact, walked that back and said the DOJ “will handle it.”
According to a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by a self-described “fixer” and gambler against Paramount president Jeff Shell — which was expanded to name the Ellisons, Paramount and Paramount board members as defendants — Shell had shared that President Trump personally assured Larry Ellison that he would intervene to help Paramount win the WBD deal. According to the lawsuit, Shell told the man now suing him, R.J. Cipriani, that the president allegedly said to the Oracle exec, “Larry, it looks like Netflix is gonna get Warner Bros., but if you really really want it, Larry, I’ll make sure you get it.” (A rep for Oracle, where Larry Ellison serves as executive chairman and chief technology officer, declined to comment.)
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On Feb. 20, before it had clinched the WBD pact, Paramount Skydance said the waiting period on the DOJ’s inquiries under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act had expired, meaning there was no “statutory impediment in the U.S. to closing Paramount’s proposed acquisition of WBD.” However, the DOJ has the latitude to challenge a merger even after the HSR waiting period expiration.
Assefi assumed his current post after the DOJ ousted his predecessor, Gail Slater, who reportedly clashed with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Assefi previously served as deputy assistant attorney general with a focus on criminal enforcement and before that was a member of the division’s Washington Criminal Section. Assefi began his service in the Trump administration as an assistant special counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office, where he represented the office of the president in the Department of Justice Special Counsel’s Investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Assefi told Reuters that the DOJ’s antitrust division will be “aggressive” in reviewing M&A deals. In the interview, he claimed that in 2025, the length of prison sentences imposed for antitrust crimes rose by 1,200% year over year.
Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has said the state is reviewing the Paramount-WBD deal. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review,” Bonta said in a Feb. 26 statement.
In addition, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have slammed the Trump administration’s Treasury Department for failing to initiate a national security review of Paramount Skydance‘s WBD deal, which is backed by three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
Separately, Assefi told Reuters that the DOJ’s recent settlement of its antitrust case against Live Nation Entertainment was a “historic outcome” that did more to restore competition than prior administrations or private lawsuits. That settlement has been criticised by lawmakers as failing to protect consumers. Earlier this week, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the Antitrust Accountability and Transparency Act“to strengthen review of antitrust settlements and ensure they protect consumers, workers, and small businesses. Said Klobuchar: “In the recent settlement between the Department of Justice and Live Nation, it is clear the American people got the raw end of the deal.”
From Variety US