The chief authorized counsel of Paramount Skydance, Makan Delrahim, has alleged that some opponents of the David Ellison-led firm’s pending $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery are motivated by “antisemitic views.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Instances, Delrahim spoke concerning the backlash within the trade to the Paramount-WBD deal. To this point, greater than 5,500 filmmakers, actors and different Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter opposing the deal. Home Democrats have urged California Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta to “closely scrutinize” the deal.
“Politics is part of life. It’s part of the beautiful process of democracy,” Delrahim mentioned. “Generally, we are very empathetic to the folks in Hollywood, but this transaction will actually create more and better and exciting jobs. David [Ellison] is an absolute lover of films; he’s a filmmaker himself. For the first time, you are getting an owner who comes from the creative side.”
The exec continued: “Let’s be honest. There’s a lot of fear-mongering, particularly from people in Washington, D.C. They are running a political campaign. Some of these people are trying to inflict harm on this transaction really because of their own antisemitic views. Regulators and law enforcement officials will see right through that.”
Within the interview, printed June 1, Delrahim was not quoted as elaborating on his assertion or figuring out which opponents of the Paramount-WBD merger have “antisemitic views.” Selection has reached out to Paramount for clarification on his remarks.
In September 2025, a company referred to as Film Workers for Palestine circulated a pledge to not “work with Israeli film institutions” that “are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” A couple of days later, Paramount released a statement condemning that pledge for “silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality.” (The Film Workers for Palestine emphasized that the pledge is meant to focus on firms and organizations, not particular person Israelis.)
As previously reported by Selection, Larry Ellison — David’s multibillionaire father, who’s a significant monetary backer of Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. — is claimed to be a detailed good friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is a donor to the U.S.-based nonprofit group Pals of the Israel Protection Forces (IDF).
In the meantime, within the LA Instances interview, Delrahim denied that Paramount Skydance has “a commitment” from Trump or his administration to have the WBD deal accepted. “There are no deals with the president,” he mentioned.
Requested if Paramount was ready to defend a attainable antitrust lawsuit from California AG Bonta, Delrahim responded: “Well, no matter what field you’re in, whether it’s antitrust or whether you’re preparing for a football game, you always prepare the best you can for the worst, and you hope it never gets there. So, we’re preparing for challenges from anybody and everybody. But I don’t think any serious antitrust enforcer who looks at the facts, the law, the economics of this transaction will see an antitrust violation.”
Final month, Delrahim sent a letter to Bonta, by which he “reiterate[d] our continued commitment and support to Californian movie theaters and audiences” coming “in response to certain misinformation about the marketplace expressed in recent public commentary.” He additionally famous Ellison’s repeated pledges that the merged firm will release at least 30 films per year. As well as, he mentioned that Paramount+ and HBO Max individually do not need the dimensions to “compete effectively” towards larger subscription streaming gamers Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu, and Amazon’s Prime Video.
In the meantime, relating to Paramount’s potential absorption of CNN with the WBD deal, Delrahim commented, “Antitrust regulators are going to see that it’s going to create synergistic effects. You might be able to cross-program and more people will be exposed to the incredible programming of CBS News. They’ll benefit from each other’s independent strengths.”
Paramount, earlier than it gained the WBD deal, mentioned its proposed WBD takeover had cleared a milestone at the Justice Department, after the expiration of the statutory ready interval following Paramount’s “certification of compliance” with the DOJ’s second request for info below the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust act. Nevertheless, the DOJ has the latitude to problem a merger even after the HSR ready interval expiration. Earlier this 12 months, the performing head of the Justice Division’s antitrust division, Omeed Assefi, mentioned the Paramount-WBD deal will “absolutely not” be on a fast-track for approval due to political reasons, within the context of the Ellison household’s pleasant ties to Trump.
Delrahim joined as Paramount’s chief legal counsel in October 2025. Beforehand, as a associate at regulation agency Latham & Watkins, he had suggested Skydance Media on the Paramount International acquisition. Earlier than that he served as an assistant legal professional normal overseeing the U.S. Division of Justice’s Antitrust Division throughout President Trump’s first time period. Delrahim, who’s Iranian American, grew up in L.A.
