Antitrust

Rob Bonta's Paramount Crusade Could Make California's Hollywood Exodus Even Worse

California's attorney general is fighting a merger that 65 countries and the DOJ already cleared. Now, the state may lose thousands of jobs.

Tosin Akintola | 8.12.2026 12:00 PM

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Paramount Skydance is escalating its legal battle with California. CEO David Ellison has threatened to move the company's operations in the Golden State to a more friendly locale unless the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, agrees to settle its antitrust lawsuit challenging Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., by the start of October, Puck reported on Tuesday.

As part of the reshuffle, Paramount would move its Los Angeles headquarters first, before beginning a five-year plan to relocate its studio jobs. The company currently has about 17,600 employees worldwide, thousands of whom are based in California. Those jobs would presumably be eliminated as part of the relocation. Should Bonta call Ellison's bluff, California........

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