• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 28, 2026

Paramount Skydance must now have a complicated long-term strategy, given the legal challenges to its deal for Warner Bros. Discovery.

But can some of the parties involved continue to hang on? And at what cost?

Realizing that the legal challenges to its $110 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery now have some staying power, Paramount Skydance has agreed to a deal that could stretch the completion of its merger until June 2027.

There are major legal challenges from 12 states, led by California, and from the Writers Guild of America.

If either of those come to some sort of settlement, that would dismiss the court agreement and allow the companies to merge -- whichever comes first.

But until then the two companies are stuck -- somewhat in limbo -- given that WBD agreed in principle for the deal.

This means that currently, WBD cannot operate independently. In addition, WBD cannot make new acquisitions -- or some content and distribution deals -- without Paramount’s consent. And if WBD wants to hire new executives, it needs approval from Paramount.

So a whole year of operations for WBD has the potential to become a stagnant state of affairs. Solving those legal challenges is key to moving forward.

One may believe that specific legal settlements could come. This could include rethinking the entire merger situation for what appears to be alleged monopolistic outcomes.

This could include agreeing to a sale in specific business areas -- say, movies studio operations, streaming platform consolidation (Paramount+ and HBO Max), or perhaps cable TV networks -- which might allow the deal to go ahead.

In the meantime, however, the streaming marketplace will continue to evolve. An entire 12-month period can be a long time in the modern media/TV industry.

Amid all of this the parties are expected to begin negotiating a trial schedule in the coming days.

This is something Paramount hopes to avoid. Not only can trials go on for a long time, but evidence in the cases could potentially reveal previous company information about prosperity and clues about how it operates.

Worse still, California Attorney General Rob Bonta told The Wall Street Journal he favors a January 2027 start date.

We may wonder now if those senior WBD executives could be considering whether Netflix’s $83 billion deal for just WBD movie studios and streaming platforms -- wasn’t a better deal.