Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee in California’s gubernatorial race, admitted he was hopeful the antitrust lawsuit against the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger could settle before the start of its March trial.
Becerra made his thoughts on the suit against the $110 billion deal known during Politico’s Tuesday conference, where he advised that adversaries could “get way more done” outside of a courtroom.
“I hope it settles before court. It is easier to stand in a conference room and settle than it is to stand in a courtroom,” he said. “I say that having had to stand both in the conference room and in the courtroom. You get way more done in the conference room than you do in the courtroom.”
Becerra’s stance marked the first time the gubernatorial hopeful addressed the lawsuit brought about by 12 state attorneys general, including California’s AG Rob Bonta.
Before throwing his hat into the ring for the governor’s race, Becerra was notably the former secretary of health and human services under Joe Biden, as well as California’s attorney general between 2017 and 2021.
While Becerra didn’t share what he thought of Bonta and company’s case against the Paramount-WBD deal, he did highlight the difficulty of antitrust cases – calling them “a different animal from most litigation.
“They are very difficult. They are very fact intensive. The law doesn’t keep pace,” he said. “All I know is this, in terms of what’s going on in this particular case, the entertainment industry is our baby in California. We have to fight to keep it vibrant. If a merger is good, that helps that keeps it vibrant, I’m willing to say, let’s take a look. If that merger undermines the ability of the industry of remaining vibrant, then I’m going to take … a closer look as well.”
Nonetheless, Becerra didn’t appear to kindly take to Ellison’s threat to relocate the company out of California amid the legal woes, advising both parties to act like “adults” and to “not be kids.”
“Having a major player in the industry leave would not be good,” he said. “At the same time, I said as well, ‘Is it going to be good for working families?’ Having them leave the state is certainly not good for working families. So let’s be adults, not be kids. Conference room, not courtroom.”
