David Ellison Won’t Appear at Senate Hearing Due to a Death in Family
A Senate hearing over Paramount‘s blockbuster $111 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery will move forward without the sale’s primary player David Ellison.
The mogul’s Paramount policy team informed Sen. Cory Booker, the top Democrat on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, that Ellison won’t be able to attend the Washington, D.C. hearing due to an undisclosed death in the family.
“Regretfully, Mr. Ellison is unable to be in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, as he is attending a funeral due to a death in the family,” Paramount policy exec Ted Lehman wrote in a reply to Booker.
Lehman added, “As discussed in person with you earlier this year and in our written statement to the Antitrust Subcommittee at your request, our view on the proposed Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery deal is quite straight forward: We believe the transaction should be reviewed on the merits. And on the merits, the transaction is procompetitive.”
In a letter sent on Monday to the Paramount mogul, Booker had sharpened his words toward the executive in an effort to get Ellison to testify. “As the leader of the company seeking to execute one of the largest media mergers in American history, your continued unwillingness to engage with Congressional oversight is itself a matter of public concern,” the Senator had wrote.
Since Paramount formally sealed an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in late February after rival Netflix abandoned its bid, lobbying has hit fever pitch on the deal. Ellison’s team is hoping to have the deal closed by the end of September, while coalitions are forming in the industry to mount an opposition front.
Those opposed include Cinema United, the main lobbying organization repping the major movie theater chains like AMC, Regal and Cinemark, whose chief, Michael O’Leary, described the Par-WB deal as “harmful to exhibition, consumers and the entire entertainment eco-system” during April 14 remarks to exhibitors in Vegas at industry confab CinemaCon.
On the grassroots front, multiple organizations including Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment are circulating a petition that includes 1,000 boldface Hollywood names who’ve signed an open letter describing the deal as resulting in “fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences.” Signatories include JJ Abrams, Yorgos Lanthimos, Vince Gilligan, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Glenn Close, Denis Villeneuve, Nia DaCosta and many more.
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