Paramount Skydance has completed its $111B merger with Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount Skydance has completed its $111B merger with Warner Bros. Discovery
派拉蒙与天空之舞（Skydance）完成与华纳兄弟探索公司 1110 亿美元的合并
Paramount Skydance completed its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery today, after a last-ditch effort to block the deal was rejected by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. The post-merger company is called Skydance, taking the name of a firm that Paramount bought in a separate deal last year. 派拉蒙与天空之舞（Paramount Skydance）今日完成了与华纳兄弟探索公司（Warner Bros. Discovery）价值 1110 亿美元的合并。此前，最高法院大法官埃琳娜·卡根（Elena Kagan）驳回了旨在阻止该交易的最后努力。合并后的公司命名为“天空之舞”（Skydance），沿用了派拉蒙去年在另一笔交易中收购的一家公司的名称。
The new Skydance combines two of the largest movie studios, streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, CBS, CNN, “and a portfolio of live sports including CBS Sports and TNT Sports, as well as a deep programming library and expansive collection of brands and franchises,” Skydance said today in a press release announcing completion of the deal. 天空之舞在今日宣布交易完成的新闻稿中表示，新公司整合了两大电影制片厂、流媒体服务 Paramount+ 和 HBO Max、CBS、CNN，以及“包括 CBS 体育和 TNT 体育在内的直播体育组合，以及深厚的节目库和广泛的品牌与特许经营权集合”。
The merger was delayed a bit by a lawsuit filed by California and 11 other states. In July, US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in the Northern District of California ruled that the combination would likely reduce competition substantially and violate antitrust laws. California settled the lawsuit last month, and the other states involved went along with the compromise. 由于加利福尼亚州和其他 11 个州提起的诉讼，此次合并曾一度推迟。今年 7 月，美国加州北区联邦地区法院法官阿拉塞利·马丁内斯-奥尔金（Araceli Martínez-Olguín）裁定，此次合并可能会大幅削弱竞争并违反反垄断法。加州上个月与对方达成和解，其他相关州也接受了这一妥协方案。
A coalition of free speech and media advocacy groups urged the judge to reject the settlement, saying it will give residents of the states that sued Paramount “virtually nothing.” Martínez-Olguín approved the settlement on September 30, saying the deal “represents a reasonable factual and legal resolution of the dispute.” She wrote that a typical settlement “does not fully remediate an alleged violation or even necessarily resolve the ultimate factual and legal issues of a case.” 一个由言论自由和媒体倡导团体组成的联盟曾敦促法官拒绝该和解协议，称其给予起诉派拉蒙各州居民的补偿“几乎为零”。马丁内斯-奥尔金法官于 9 月 30 日批准了该和解协议，称该交易“代表了对争议在事实和法律层面的合理解决”。她写道，典型的和解协议“并不能完全弥补所谓的违规行为，也不一定能解决案件最终的事实和法律问题”。
It “reflects a compromise of the claims short of full adjudication—compromise that may leave some dissatisfaction for both sides and the public but a compromise that saves the risk, time, and expense of litigating through trial.” The settlement addresses the lawsuit’s complaints about film distribution “by requiring certain minimum thresholds of investment and release of domestic films,” and addresses complaints about licensing of basic cable channels with “requirements for continued, separate negotiations of distribution for the two entities’ basic cable holdings,” the judge wrote. 她写道，这“反映了在全面裁决之外的一种诉求妥协——这种妥协可能会让双方和公众感到不满，但它节省了通过审判进行诉讼的风险、时间和费用”。法官写道，该和解协议通过“要求在投资和发行国产电影方面达到一定的最低门槛”来解决诉讼中关于电影发行的投诉，并通过“要求两家实体的基础有线电视资产继续进行单独的发行谈判”来解决关于基础有线频道许可的投诉。
Objections based on “hopes and desires for the proposed consent decree to reach farther—to achieve more—do not rise to the level of legal violations upon which the Court can reject the parties’ negotiated resolution,” she wrote. 她写道，基于“希望拟议的同意令能走得更远、实现更多目标”的反对意见，并未达到法院可以据此拒绝双方协商解决方案的法律违规程度。
Merger opponents strike out at Supreme Court
合并反对者在最高法院受挫
A separate lawsuit in the same district court, filed by five consumers who purchase streaming service subscriptions or other video products, also failed. The five consumers sought review in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which rejected the plaintiffs’ request. The plaintiffs then filed an emergency application to block the deal with Kagan, who handles emergency requests for the Ninth Circuit. Kagan denied the application yesterday without comment. 在同一地方法院，由五名购买流媒体服务订阅或其他视频产品的消费者提起的另一起诉讼也以失败告终。这五名消费者向美国第九巡回上诉法院寻求复审，但被法院驳回。随后，原告向负责处理第九巡回法院紧急请求的大法官卡根提交了阻止该交易的紧急申请。卡根昨日驳回了该申请，未作任何评论。
The settlement with California requires Skydance to set up an “Editorial Independence Board” for CBS News and CNN. The board’s members would be chosen by Skydance and report to the company’s board of directors. The settlement term was adopted amid concerns about CBS and CNN’s ability to report news independently. CNN CEO Mark Thompson and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss will retain their roles in the merged firm. 与加州达成的和解协议要求天空之舞为 CBS 新闻和 CNN 设立一个“编辑独立委员会”。该委员会成员将由天空之舞选出，并向公司董事会报告。这一和解条款是在外界对 CBS 和 CNN 独立报道新闻的能力表示担忧的情况下通过的。CNN 首席执行官马克·汤普森（Mark Thompson）和 CBS 新闻主编巴里·韦斯（Bari Weiss）将保留其在合并后公司中的职务。
Paramount CEO David Ellison reportedly told Trump administration officials that he would make big changes at CNN, a frequent target of Trump’s wrath. Last year, Paramount won US approval to buy Skydance after reaching a $16 million settlement with Trump and agreeing to install what Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr described as a “bias monitor” at CBS. 据报道，派拉蒙首席执行官大卫·埃里森（David Ellison）曾告诉特朗普政府官员，他将对 CNN 进行重大改革，而 CNN 经常是特朗普愤怒的目标。去年，派拉蒙在与特朗普达成 1600 万美元的和解协议，并同意在 CBS 安装联邦通信委员会主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）所称的“偏见监测器”后，获得了美国政府对其收购天空之舞的批准。
The US Department of Justice approved the Paramount/Warner merger in June, a decision that reportedly surprised DOJ staff lawyers who were leaning toward recommending that the agency file an antitrust lawsuit to block it. In September, the FCC allowed Paramount to finance the merger by selling large equity stakes to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. 美国司法部于 6 月批准了派拉蒙与华纳的合并，据报道，这一决定令司法部的工作律师感到惊讶，因为他们此前倾向于建议该机构提起反垄断诉讼以阻止合并。9 月，联邦通信委员会允许派拉蒙通过向沙特阿拉伯、阿拉伯联合酋长国和卡塔尔的主权财富基金出售大量股权来为合并融资。
Reuters reports that Skydance is “expected to carry about $80 billion in debt, putting pressure on Ellison to grow streaming, preserve cash flow from cable networks and improve theatrical film performance.” The sovereign wealth funds have non-voting shares in Skydance, while the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners own 100 percent of the voting shares. 路透社报道称，天空之舞“预计将背负约 800 亿美元的债务，这给埃里森带来了压力，要求其必须扩大流媒体业务、保持有线电视网络的现金流并提高电影院线的表现”。这些主权财富基金持有天空之舞的无投票权股份，而埃里森家族和红鸟资本（RedBird Capital Partners）则拥有 100% 的投票权股份。