New Judge Presides Over Paramount-WBD Antitrust Challenge To Merger
The State of California and other AGs’ antitrust case against Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery has been reassigned to Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in the Northern District of California; an initial hearing on a temporary restraining order is still set for Friday. Paramount had moved to recuse the prior judge, P. Casey Pitts, citing an appearance of bias from his former WGA work, and the WGA has a separate suit to block the merger. A related shareholder suit was filed in Delaware; the merger, valued around $110 billion, is still expected to close in the third quarter.