Booker Statement on Paramount - Skydance/ Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Shareholder Vote

WASHINGTON D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, issued the following statement in response to the WBD shareholders vote on the Paramount-Skydance/ Warner Bros. Discovery Merger:

"Thousands of actors, writers and directors, numerous unions, First Amendment scholars, antitrust enforcers, and everyday Americans oppose this merger for a reason: it'll cut jobs, jack up prices for consumers, choke free speech, and put outsized power in the hands of one mega corporation.

"This mega corporation will be run by a single family riddled with conflicts of interest that have shown a willingness to bend the knee to Donald Trump-settling a meritless lawsuit, promising to shake up CNN-all to secure the deal. And while they've been busy currying favor with Trump, they've stonewalled congressional oversight. Any merger of this scale-let alone the largest media merger in U.S. history-would normally have Republicans dissecting it under a microscope. Its CEO would have had to appear before the Senate. Yet there's been nothing but silence from our colleagues across the aisle while David Ellison has refused to appear before the Senate to answer the routine questions asked of any CEO looking to consolidate this much market power.

"This merger is far from a done deal-federal and international regulators still need to sign off, state attorneys general have to review, and those of us in the Senate who want to protect Americans from the crush of corporate consolidation will continue to press for answers. Most importantly, workers and communities who would be affected will continue to use their voices to demand more from their representatives than silence and surrender."

Earlier this week, Booker sent letters to Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), Allen & Company, and Evercore, demanding information about undisclosed conflicts of interest in the proposed $111 billion acquisition of WBD by Paramount Skydance Corporation and requested responses from all parties by May 5, 2026.

The letters are part of Booker's broader oversight of the proposed merger, which has included inquiries to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding foreign ownership implications, and requests to the Department of the Treasury and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to initiate a review of the role of the Gulf sovereign wealth fund's financing in the transaction. Earlier this month, Booker held a congressional forum and heard testimony from actor Mark Ruffalo; Academy Award-winning filmmaker David Borenstein; Director of Legal Services at the Writers Guild, Michael Isaac; attorney and journalist Katie Phang; and Co-founder and Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard. Each of the witnesses warned that the merger would put tens of thousands of media professionals at risk of losing their jobs and pose a threat to democracy itself.

Read the full text of the Allen & Company letter here.

Read the full text of the Warner Bros. Discovery letter here.

Read the full text of the Evercore letter here.

Read the full text of the FCC letter here.

Read the full text of the letter to CFIUS here.

Watch the congressional forum here.