(July 1): Paramount Skydance Corp has formally offered commitments in an attempt to allay European Union fears over its US$110 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery Inc.
The European Commission announced the move in a filing on its website on Wednesday, which gave no details of the offer. The EU authority said it set a new deadline of July 22 to decide whether to clear the deal or open an in-depth probe.
The offer by Paramount is expected to garner the approval of EU competition regulators, people familiar with the matter said last week.
Paramount said in a statement that it’s “confident that this remedy directly and comprehensively addresses any concerns expressed in the European Commission’s preliminary assessment” and will “support the path for timely clearance".
The proposed antitrust fix comes after Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera flagged concerns to Bloomberg TV over the power Paramount may garner in film distribution in Europe. She highlighted in particular that she wanted to make sure there are “alternatives that producers and filmmakers can find” to get their content into movie theatres and homes in the 27-nation bloc.
Scrutiny from the EU’s antitrust arm is one of the last obstacles Paramount’s David Ellison must overcome after outmanoeuvring rival suitor Netflix Inc with multiple bids over more than five months, visits to Washington, meetings with shareholders and President Donald Trump and the personal backing of his billionaire father Larry Ellison.
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However other potential hurdles still remain in the US and the UK, where the government raised concerns over the deal’s potential threat to diversity of media ownership.
Lisa Nandy, UK secretary of state for culture, media and sport, on Tuesday wrote a letter to Warner Bros and said to parliament that she’s “minded to intervene” on public interest grounds. If she does decide to step in, the country’s media regulator and antitrust watchdog will report to her about the deal’s impact on competition.
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