{"id":42504,"date":"2026-08-13T05:53:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42504"},"modified":"2026-08-13T05:53:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:53:50","slug":"paramount-considering-sale-of-cnn-to-end-lawsuit-antitrust-case-over-warner-bros-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42504","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Considering Sale of CNN to End Lawsuit Antitrust Case Over Warner Bros. Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paramount-and-warner-towers-scaled.jpg?quality=80\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-id=\"1617767\" data-title=\"Paramount Open to Selling CNN to End Lawsuit Holding Up Warner Bros. Takeover\" data-url=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/08\/paramount-may-sell-cnn-to-end-lawsuit-over-warner-deal\/\" data-page=\"1\" data-pages=\"1\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/tag\/paramount\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paramount Skydance<\/a> would consider selling CNN to end an antitrust lawsuit that\u2019s seeking to thwart the media giant\u2019s $111-billion takeover of <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/tag\/warner-bros\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/transactional\/paramount-says-cnn-sale-on-table-resolve-california-suit-over-warner-bros-deal-2026-08-12\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Reuters<\/a><\/em> reported Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim told journalists at Politico\u2019s California Agenda conference that everything was on the table, including the sale of CNN, which is owned by Warner, to resolve the California-led antitrust lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/11\/business\/media\/david-ellison-hollywood-paramount-warner-bros.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><em>New York Times<\/em> op-ed<\/a>, Paramount CEO David Ellison tied the antitrust lawsuit to concerns over editorial independence at CNN on the part of 12 state attorneys general who sued. Whether a promise to sell CNN would end the lawsuit isn\u2019t absolute. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the antitrust case, has scoffed at Ellison tethering the lawsuit to CNN\u2019s status, and said that the case is about stopping a media behemoth that will raise prices and undermine competition.<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>Ellison has also threatened to move Paramount out of California starting in October if Bonta doesn\u2019t progress toward settling the lawsuit. At the conference, Bonta called that threat \u201cblackmail,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/08\/paramount-warner-bros-merger-california-settlement-1237031558\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><em>Deadline<\/em> reported<\/a>. Delrahim addressed Ellison\u2019s proposal to take the company out of Hollywood, saying \u201cThere\u2019s a point at which you have a duty, a fiduciary duty to your shareholders, and those are all the factors you consider. But our goal is to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paramount began a <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2025\/12\/paramount-launches-hostile-takeover-of-warner-bros-discovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">push<\/a> to buy Warner in December, with Ellison positioning his company as a better fit than Netflix, which had been the forerunner in the purchase. In February, Paramount\u2019s bid <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/02\/warner-bros-paramount-netflix-superior-proposal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">won<\/a> out, but antitrust regulations meant the deal couldn\u2019t be finalized before 12 states <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/states-file-antitrust-lawsuit-in-paramount-warner-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued<\/a> to stop the merger. A trial date is set for March, and until it\u2019s complete, the merger won\u2019t happen without a settlement from the attorneys general.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\t\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=1;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\t\tdocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('set','agent','tmgoogletagmanager', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('track', \"PageView\");\n\t<\/script><script defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v7.0&#038;appId=434175690014\" nonce=\"6gwmbCtM\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paramount Skydance would consider selling CNN to end an antitrust lawsuit that\u2019s seeking to thwart the media giant\u2019s $111-billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to reports. Wednesday, Reuters reported Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim told journalists at Politico\u2019s California Agenda conference that everything was on the table, including the sale of CNN, which&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paramount-and-warner-towers-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}