Rob Bonta “caved across the board” yesterday when he settled with Paramount — sources close to the California AG are saying — and Bonta even seemed close to tears when he announced the deal, an insider told Page Six Hollywood.
Sources close to the talks between Paramount and Bonta were caught off guard yesterday when the sudden Monday morning settlement was announced. And players on Bonta’s side were shocked that he handed such a clear win to David Ellison and Paramount.
“There’s almost nothing in here with all the filings, statements, and law on their side that reflects they got anything,” said an astonished insider of the AG. “They caved across the board and I don’t know why. Clearly someone pressured him to do this.”
Perhaps Bonta was also privately unhappy with the outcome: “When he said at the press conference that he never believed that this merger should take place — as he was announcing the merger — he looked like he was going to cry,” added a source close to the situation.
“I’m trying to understand why everything they said and filed and that the judge agreed to went out the window in the last few days. I just don’t understand it,” said the exasperated insider who was still in disbelief over the deal.
The Post’s Charles Gasparino reported yesterday that Bonta’s collapse resulted from political pressure from Gov. Newsom, LA Mayor Karen Bass and potential governor Xavier Becerra — after Ellison indicated he’d leave town with the studio if a deal wasn’t reached.
Gasparino also reported that Ellison and Bonta had a one-on-one meeting last week when the Paramount boss made it clear he’d pick up and move Paramount out of California. A source also told the business journo: “All these people – Newsom, Bass and Becerra – are running for office now and in the future; Newsom wants to be president. Were they going to risk their political career over a lawsuit that has little antitrust merit?”
Hours after the settlement was announced, Ellison proclaimed “Let me be clear: the newly merged company will be headquartered in Los Angeles. We aren’t going anywhere.” (Though, as even Bonta noted yesterday, there is nothing in the settlement that requires them to keep their headquarters in LA).
Among the block the merger set, the mood around Hollywood yesterday was a mix of outrage and grim acceptance — in the middle of Yom Kippur, no less, when many around town were hours deep into their fasts.
Despite Bonta’s arguing for months that Paramount needed to give “meaningful” structural remedies — usually lawyer-speak for “you gotta sell off stuff” — the settlement contained virtually none of that.
And buried in the fine print was that Ellison’s agreements only cover the next five years. After that? All bets are off.
Even so, Bonta put a brave face to the assembled media Monday morning. “I want to be clear about something right up front. This settlement is not a vote of support for this merger. It is not a blessing of the broader merger,” he said. “We got the antitrust resolution that we wanted.”
For many, the victory lap Bonta tried to sell yesterday morning rang hollow. William Tong, the attorney general for Connecticut and one of the 12 AGs backing the lawsuit, expressed disappointment in his own statement that they couldn’t get more concessions, namely, forcing Paramount to sell off CNN. “I am deeply disappointed that we could not do more,” he said yesterday.
But when pressed yesterday about any division among AGs in the settlement talks, Bonta said tersely: “Everybody signed on to it. All 12 states. It’s unanimous.”
Bonta was vague about the timeline of the settlement talks — in one lighthearted moment after the press conference, he would only confirm that he did, in fact, brush his teeth yesterday morning. “We have made a lot of progress over the last week. I don’t have percentages for you… there were components that were not locked in that needed to get locked in to the very end.”
He continued: “You get to a place in some of these negotiations where you get to 90%. Maybe 95%, maybe even 99%. And then the last part is often the hardest part.”
Going forward, both Paramount and Warner Bros. expect the deal to be finally closed in around two weeks, pushing it right up against the Oct. 1 deadline for when Paramount would have to start paying an extra $7 million per day to Warner Bros.
Said a source: “On Friday morning I didn’t think this thing was going to happen and then on Saturday I was confident that if it did, it would happen with some structural remedies. Something changed in the last 24 hours.”
Some also wonder if Bonta himself has eyes on running for office, and didn’t want to risk the political capital.