A federal judge has set the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger trial for next March.
The date is much closer to the timeline sought by state attorneys general and the Writers Guild America, who sued to block the transaction.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín wrote that the trial will take place from March 2 to March 19 of next year.
Paramount had sought a November trial start; the state AGs and the WGA proposed April.
The judge wrote that the trial will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with two 15 minute breaks. The trial will be dark on March 8 and March 15.
The trial dates are hugely important for the transaction, and even Paramount’s proposed date likely will cost the company hundreds of millions. After September 30, Paramount will be on the hook for about $7 million for every day that the transaction doesn’t close, under an agreement with WBD that was a sweetener to the deal.
Paramount had urged an earlier date, arguing in a filing last week that it would require them to refile merger materials with the Justice Department, which has already cleared the transaction, because a waiting period expires on Feb. 19.
“A trial after that date would require the parties to re-do regulatory work that has already been completed,” the company’s legal team said in its filing last week. “This burden is not limited to the United States but will also be applicable in other jurisdictions where pre-closing regulatory review and clearance has been obtained. Redoing work that has already been done to the satisfaction of government agencies around the world serves nobody’s interests.”
The company said that that the later date would leave the creative community in a period of uncertainty, as Paramount plans to boost production to 30 films per year.
The state AGs and the WGA, however, wrote that they needed extensive discovery. They pointed to the collection of materials on “the definition of the relevant product and geographic markets, the nature and scope of harm in those markets, whether expansion by other firms will prevent harm in those markets, and whether the merger will produce verifiable, merger-specific efficiencies sufficient to outweigh harm in those markets.”
The judge set an initial case management conference for Aug. 19, with a joint case management statement due on Aug. 13.
More to come.
