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Paramount Bid for Warner Bros. Draws Warren’s Antitrust Warning

By  |  December 9, 2025

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is escalating her criticism of major media consolidation, this time directing her concerns at Paramount’s hostile push to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. According to Deadline, the senator argued that the proposed merger could severely undermine competition in the entertainment industry. In a statement, she said, “A Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. merger would be a five-alarm antitrust fire and exactly what our anti-monopoly laws are written to prevent.”

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    Per Deadline, Warren also raised alarms about who is helping finance the offer. She said, “Paramount Skydance’s new hostile bid is backed by a who’s who of Trump buddies, from Jared Kushner’s private equity firm to the Ellison family to money flowing from the Middle East — raising serious questions about influence-peddling, political favoritism, and national security risks. The Department of Justice and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) must review any Warner Bros. deal based on the law and facts, not who sucked up the most to Donald Trump.” Warren, a leading Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, noted that her panel oversees aspects of national security reviews tied to foreign investment.

    Paramount has not yet publicly responded to these accusations. A company spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

    Related: Paramount Skydance Launches Hostile $108.4 Billion Bid for Warner Bros Discovery

    The senator’s objections follow her earlier denunciation of a separate transaction involving Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. Last week, she claimed that deal would concentrate too much power in the streaming market. “This deal looks like an anti-monopoly nightmare. A Netflix-Warner Bros. would create one massive media giant with control of close to half of the streaming market — threatening to force Americans into higher subscription prices and fewer choices over what and how they watch, while putting American workers at risk.” Per Deadline, Republican Sen. Mike Lee has also expressed concerns about the Netflix arrangement, signaling bipartisan scrutiny.

    Executives at Paramount, however, reportedly maintain that their proposal could find more support from regulators in the U.S. and Europe. Yet industry watchers have noted a potential complication: former President Donald Trump. Over the weekend, Trump asserted he would play a role in determining the merger’s fate, a suggestion Warren sharply rejected as improper political interference. On social media, she warned that this stance amounted to “an open invite for CEOs to curry favor with Trump in exchange for merger approvals,” adding, “It should be an independent decision by the Department of Justice based on the law and facts.”

    Source: Deadline