California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s antitrust lawsuit aiming to block Paramount from acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery has faced political fallout. Bonta agreed to settlement terms favorable to the buyers following pressure from California’s Democratic establishment and threats that 50,000 jobs would leave the state.
Political Ambition Meets Antitrust Scrutiny
Antitrust enforcement collided with political calculation when California Attorney General Rob Bonta moved to block the purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance. Warner Bros. Discovery had landed in the middle of financial distress, failing to meet profit-and-loss expectations, which forced CEO David Zaslav to unload the studio to Paramount Skydance. That new conglomerate is run by indie producer David Ellison and his father, tech tycoon Larry Ellison.
Bonta enjoyed months of publicity arguing that the merger would create a media monopoly. Yet, while Bonta courted the far left of his party, international regulators in the European Union and the United Kingdom approved the merger as swiftly as the Trump administration.
Mark Ruffalo, Larry Ellison, and the Turning Tide
For weeks, Bonta celebrated on X that activist actor Mark Ruffalo had inspired the antitrust lawsuit. Ruffalo argued that the combined companies would eclipse Netflix and Big Tech. However, his assertions crossed a line when he claimed that Larry Ellison, who is Jewish, aided what he termed genocide in Gaza because Oracle, Larry Ellison’s software giant, provides technology to Israel.
Jewish groups publicly condemned the remarks. Behind the scenes, Hollywood’s significant pro-Israel contingent told Governor Gavin Newsom, his likely successor Xavier Becerra, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass that they were deeply unhappy with a rising political star taking cues from Ruffalo. With the Hollywood establishment threatening to withhold financial support, the state’s political apparatus quickly demanded a settlement.
Job Threats and the Swift Settlement
The pressure intensified when David Ellison threatened to leave California and take 50,000 jobs with him. As one insider involved in the attorney general’s deliberations noted regarding Ruffalo’s impact, I can’t tell you how much that Ruffalo statement hurt Bonta’s effort.
Faced with threats to the state’s employment base and an alienated donor network, Bonta agreed to settlement terms so favorable to Ellison that industry observers questioned why the case was brought initially. While Bonta secured a brief window of national fame, the debacle ultimately left the state’s political leadership scrambling to repair relationships with Hollywood’s powerful economic players.
