The Other States Have Entered the Chat

It's been a while since I checked in on the Paramount-Warner Bros. saga. Last time, the shareholders had voted yes, the Gulf money was on paper, and I said everything from there would be harder. Turns out that was an understatement too. The Feds Said Yes On June 12, the DOJ cleared the merger with no conditions — no divestitures, no behavioral remedies, nothing. The antitrust division said the deal wasn't likely to harm competition in streaming, linear TV, or theatrical film. Case closed. Except it wasn't closed the normal way. The Wall Street Journal reported that the career antitrust lawyers who'd spent eight months on this were leaning toward recommending a lawsuit — and senior DOJ officials shut the investigation down before staff could formally say so. The staff's central worry was whether a merged company carrying this much debt could actually deliver its promise of 30 theatrical releases a year. Leadership decided debt wasn't grounds for a challenge and moved on. The staff…