Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of the “BIG” anti-monopoly newsletter, discussed the legal situation surrounding the deal in a Substack video conversation with Richard Rushfield, a columnist at The Ankler.
He said the merger can be challenged by state enforcers, and Paramount would push to close the deal quickly to get ahead of that.
“That means they get to take over all these assets and start running them,” Stoller said. “They can fire people. They can intermingle the assets. They can choose new lines of business. They can move people around. All of the bonuses get paid out. They can do layoffs.”
Trying to unwind operations where assets are already intermingled would be like “unscrambling eggs,” Stoller said.
Stoller said he was puzzled by why other companies in Hollywood haven’t hired lawyers to compile evidence in opposition to the merger and hand it to state attorneys general to help build their case.
“It just baffles me why people are so passive when you can actually knife fight on stuff,” Stoller said, though he added that it could be happening without his knowledge.
