Hollywood power player Ari Emanuel is weighing in on Paramount‘s $111 billion mega-deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, giving a full-throated endorsement of David Ellison’s pursuit.
Emanuel wrote an op-ed Tuesday afternoon in the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the state attorneys general suing to stop the deal on antitrust grounds are misguided at best, and the result of a poisoned political environment at worst.
“When government officials manipulate markets to reach political outcomes, antitrust stops protecting competition and starts threatening it,” Emanuel writes. “The attorneys general should drop this case and get back to enforcing the laws as they are written. Let Hollywood creatives get back to trying to rip each other’s heads off at the box office, in streaming, online and everywhere else we compete. It’s what we’re best at.”
Emanuel, of course, oversees WME, one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, with a slew of clients who do business with both Paramount and Warners. He also runs TKO, which owns the UFC, which inked a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount last year.
Emanuel sat next to President Donald Trump when the UFC hosted an event at the White House last month (Ellison was seated about 20 feet away from them), and The Hollywood Reporter saw him and UFC CEO Dana White bring guests over to the President for hellos throughout the night.
In his op-ed, Emanuel argued that the antitrust suit “doesn’t remotely reflect reality,” citing the lack of discussion of competitors like Amazon and Netflix in the theatrical market, and the sad state of affairs in cable TV.
“The attorneys general don’t get to ignore the platforms that compete every day for audiences, talent, capital and content just because it makes their case harder,” he writes. “Believe me, as somebody who’s in those rooms, every green light, marketing budget and release date is decided against the reality of that broadly competitive environment.”
He also makes the case that if the deal gets nixed, Warner Bros. will have a difficult time competing given its vast debt load and declining revenue, while suggesting that Paramount could survive, albeit at a subscale level, thanks to Ellison’s love of the business.
Still, there is no doubt that the deal is controversial in the business. In the spring a slew of boldface names (including many WME clients) signed an open letter opposing the deal; while the WGA has filed a monopsony-focused antitrust suit of its own. SAG-AFTRA also expressed concern this week, unless “enforceable safeguards” are put into place.
Still, the deal has other industry supporters, including director James Cameron, and AMC CEO Adam Aron, underscoring the complicated nature of the deal, and the challenging reality of today’s Hollywood.
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