The top lawyers for several states are drafting a legal challenge to Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, laying the groundwork for an antitrust suit over the Hollywood mega-deal.
After investigating for months whether the deal would harm competition, senior officials in about 10 states have begun drafting a complaint and discussing logistics for filing a potential lawsuit as soon as this month to stop the merger, according to people familiar with the matter. California, which is home to the entertainment industry, has been leading the effort.
No final decisions have been made about filing or which states would join in. Most of the states that have been weighing the lawsuit are led by Democratic attorneys general although at least two Republican attorney generals are involved in the probe, according to some of the people.
Officials from California and other states have been meeting with both Paramount and opponents of the deal and sought sworn statements or testimony that could be used in a lawsuit, according to people familiar with the inquiries who also asked to not be identified.
“The Paramount acquisition of Warner Brothers remains an active investigation, and we do not have any updates to share at this time,” a spokesperson for California’s attorney general said.
Trump: US exploring partnerships with AI firms
President Donald Trump said he was weighing proposals for the US government to partner with major artificial intelligence firms, and would soon discuss the idea with the firms’ executives.
“There are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies,” Trump said Friday when asked about the idea by reporters aboard Air Force One. “There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public, and we’ll look into that.”
The president said he has already spoken to the companies about the ideas and would convene a meeting with them about it in the “very near future,” adding that it could happen as soon as next week.
Gold falls the most in 2 months on rate-hike bets
Gold fell the most in more than two months as robust US jobs data fueled bets that the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates this year, a headwind for the precious metal.
Bullion declined as much as 3.4% as bond yields and the dollar climbed after the latest US data showed job growth topped all forecasts in May. The strength in the labor market keeps the door open for Fed officials to hike rates as Middle East tensions fuel higher energy prices. Higher rates are typically negative for non-yielding bullion.
“Gold faces a double headwind from rising real yields and a firmer dollar,” said Elias Haddad, global head of markets strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. A break below the 200-day moving average, a widely watched measure of long-term momentum, points to the risk of deeper declines, according to Haddad.
Clevenland Fed Beth Hammack, who is considered the most hawkish and a voting member on the Federal Open Market Committe, said in a LinkedIn post after the jobs report that it may soon be appropriate to raise rates as the labor market appears to be in balance.
“For today, it’s reasonable to keep rates steady given the uncertainties around the economic outlook. But if recent trends continue, it may soon be appropriate to act,” she said in her post.
Compiled from Bloomberg reports.