Paramount Skydance has escalated its legal pressure on California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the Writers Guild of America and 11 other states, warning of severe "financial consequences" if their antitrust challenge to its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery ultimately fails. In a tense court filing, Paramount is again pushing for the states and union to post a bond of nearly $2 billion, arguing that a $7-million-a-day "ticking fee" owed to WBD shareholders will soon start accruing while the deal remains blocked, and that the states have not disputed the scale of the potential harm.

The filing states Paramount could suffer $1.88 billion in damages from the injunction, combining the ticking fee with rising financing costs, and notes the states have not contested this figure or denied that the deal would otherwise close by 30 September 2026. Paramount points to more than 60 other jurisdictions that have approved the merger and cites the halted Nexstar/Tegna merger as a cautionary parallel. Bonta, seeking structural remedies and re-election, has so far rejected Paramount's offers as insufficient, with no settlement talks currently under way ahead of a trial scheduled for March.