A federal magistrate judge in Oakland has ordered Paramount Skydance and a coalition of a dozen state Attorneys General to hold an in-person settlement conference over two consecutive days at the end of October, in the latest twist in the legal battle over Paramount's $111 billion (£87 billion) merger with Warner Bros Discovery. The order matters because it forces both sides back to the table after a previous attempt at talks collapsed in August, though officials from California, which leads the coalition, cautioned that a court-mandated meeting is standard practice and does not signal an actual settlement is near.

Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson set the conference to begin at 10am Pacific time, with both parties required to submit a schedule by 15 September. The underlying antitrust trial remains scheduled for 2 March 2027, and a separate deadline requires the states to respond by 25 September to a Supreme Court challenge from Iowa and Montana seeking to derail their case, with a bond hearing over Paramount's proposed $1.88 billion (£1.47 billion) bond due the following day. Adding pressure on Paramount, a $7 million (£5.5 million)-a-day fee owed to Warner Bros Discovery shareholders begins accruing at the end of September, amounting to more than $635 million (£497 million) per quarter, which the company has cited as grounds for "extraordinary losses" from the delay.