No harm to American consumers: US DOJ clears path for Paramount's historic $110 Billion Warner Bros Discovery takeover

David Ellison's Paramount Skydance has received clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division for its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The decision marks a significant milestone for the transaction, but the deal is not yet complete, as it still requires approvals and could face legal challenges before closing.

DOJ approval was one of the major hurdles, and now that it has been cleared, the companies are one step closer to completing the merger that could reshape Hollywood. This is one of the first major deal ever signed up in Trump era.

David Ellison’s $111 Billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger

On Friday (June 12), the Justice Department's Antitrust Division released a statement regarding its clearance of Paramount's deal, which comes after months of scrutiny and has faced significant backlash from industry figures and A-list celebrities.

“The Division has completed its analysis of the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. and determined based on the evidence received in its investigation that the transaction is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers,” they statement reads.

The DOJ's conclusion has stated that combination would likely increase competition rather than diminish it, particularly in streaming, and that consumers would benefit from a stronger rival to industry leaders. The review focused on three major areas: Streaming video services (SVOD) Linear television Film studio development, production, and theatrical distribution.

In the rigorous eight-month investigation led by the Division’s career staff, the Division received from the Parties over two million documents from over 80 custodians, substantial productions of data, as well as extensive documents, data, and advocacy from third parties across the media and entertainment ecosystem.

The historic deal would combine two of Hollywood's largest media companies, putting a huge collection of television networks, movie studios, streaming services, and news organizations under a single corporate owner, which has led to a strong backlash from the industry, who says that his merge would give a huge power to one company.

In this deal: What Paramount owns: CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, MTV
What Warner Bros. Discovery owns, HBO Max, Warner Bros. Pictures, CNN and Discovery Channel.

The DOJ statement also mentioned how Netflix was also interested in the deal and in December 2025, the streaming giant entered into an agreement to acquire WBD. Subsequently, Paramount submitted an all-cash tender offer. And after months long struggle, it finally made Warner Bros agree for the role.