The European Commission on Wednesday approved Paramount Skydance’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, marking a major regulatory milestone for the roughly $110 billion deal. The EU pointed to concessions Paramount had agreed to as a condition for the clearance, noting that these steps would enable the merger to proceed while preserving competition in European markets. The European Commission said Paramount will divest its stake in a film distribution joint venture with United International Pictures in Europe and will not enter into any film distribution deal with Universal in Europe for the next 10 years. EU officials stressed that the commitments address competition concerns by ensuring the merged group’s films are not distributed jointly with Universal or Disney in the region. Paramount’s stock rose about 3% in midday trading on the news.
The European clearance comes despite a separate U.S. challenge to the deal. California’s Rob Bonta and a coalition of state attorneys general filed suit to block the merger on antitrust grounds, and a California district judge granted a temporary restraining order that effectively pauses merger activities for 14 days. The DOJ has already given its approval in the United States, but U.S. state-level actions continue to loom over the transaction.
Paramount has said it remains on track to close the merger by the end of September, even as the U.S. state lawsuit and related regulatory reviews unfold. A Paramount spokesperson did not respond to comment requests.
The deal would combine Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s vast film libraries and streaming assets, aligning two of the industry’s largest content portfolios while triggering heightened scrutiny from regulators around the world. The EU’s approval underscores the global scale of the transaction and the sensitivity of its distribution arrangements across major markets.
