5 minBusiness
Paramount-WBD Merger Clears Antitrust Hurdle as CNN Staff Brace for Layoffs and New Leadership
Paramount's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery settled with state attorneys general, removing the main antitrust obstacle and setting up David Ellison to control CNN and CBS News. CNN staffers describe a mix of resignation and anxiety over expected layoffs and an uncertain leadership future.
Paramount's $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery has cleared its biggest remaining obstacle, after the company and a group of Democratic state attorneys general reached a settlement that avoids a courtroom battle over antitrust concerns. The agreement, announced Monday, paves the way for Paramount CEO David Ellison to take control of two legacy Hollywood studios and two major news organizations — CNN and CBS News — along with a broad portfolio of entertainment assets.
The settlement includes a provision to establish an independent editorial board that will oversee both news outlets, an arrangement negotiated as part of the deal. The antitrust lawsuit, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and joined by several other Democratic state attorneys general, had been scheduled for trial in March 2027. Both sides instead chose to settle, removing the most significant legal threat to the transaction.
Inside CNN, the mood is less about resistance than about exhaustion and a desire for clarity. One network staffer said the prevailing sentiment is, «Let's just get this done.» According to that person, fewer employees are now actively opposed to the merger than in the past. «People internally just want direction,» the staffer said.
A second CNN staffer pushed back on the idea that opposition has faded, saying, «Nothing has changed about anyone's views at CNN.» The perception that resistance has softened, this person explained, stems from the fact that the deal has been discussed for so long that people have simply grown quieter. «That shouldn't be confused with a change of mindset,» the staffer said.
What lies ahead remains unsettled. Company-wide layoffs are expected and will likely hit CNN. The network's leadership is also in question: whether current CEO Mark Thompson will stay, or whether Bari Weiss — appointed by Ellison as CBS News editor-in-chief — will take on a broader role overseeing both news operations, as earlier reports have suggested.
«I don't know who will run CNN,» the second staffer said. «Ellison will have a lot of pressure to make that decision and not to say let Mark Thompson stay on for a little while to not deal with it or fake anybody out. It's better for his business to make a clean, strong decision and let everybody know.»
While the settlement brings some clarity about the network's future, the same insider is bracing for cuts described as «fairly dramatic.» «CNN will be diminished,» the staffer said. «However, that is already happening macro and micro to us and all other legacy media.» Representatives for CNN and Paramount declined to comment.
Much of the public opposition to the Paramount-WBD merger centered on Ellison's takeover of CNN. Liberal critics argued the network would take on a MAGA-friendly tilt, pointing to Ellison and his billionaire father Larry Ellison's relationship with President Donald Trump. They also raised concerns that Weiss, who has been criticized from the far left despite her left-of-center politics, could end up running CNN.
Ellison has sought to reassure skeptics that CNN would retain editorial independence. In a guest essay in The New York Times, he addressed what he called speculation about his plans. «I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth,» he wrote.
«Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle,» Ellison added. «That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence.»
The deal now moves forward with the antitrust fight behind it, but the questions that matter most to CNN's employees — who will lead them, how deep the cuts will go, and what the network will look like under new ownership — remain unanswered.
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