LULAC Calls for Continued Opposition
The League of United Latin American Citizens has urged California Attorney General Rob Bonta to maintain his legal challenge against Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. In a six-page open letter sent late Sunday and signed by LULAC National President Roman Palomares and Chief Executive Juan Proaño, the organization argued that the deal would inflict severe harm on Latino workers and small businesses tied to Hollywood.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the letter stated that “no state has more to lose from this disastrous merger than California” and that the consolidation “would have a devastating and unacceptable impact on Latinos, including those who reside in the Los Angeles community.” Latinos make up 40 percent of California’s population and nearly half of Los Angeles County, where HBO and the Paramount and Warner Bros. studios are based, according to the letter cited by the Times.
LULAC pointed to a 106-page report from Los Angeles County’s economic office concluding that at least 4,500 jobs in Southern California would be lost if the merger proceeds. The group also referenced the 2022 acquisition of WarnerMedia by Discovery, the shelving of the film “Batgirl,” and the cancellation of the series “Gordita Chronicles.” Citing Motion Picture Association data, LULAC noted that Latino characters filled only 5 percent of speaking roles across 1,300 top-grossing films. Proaño described Paramount’s reported threat to relocate operations from Los Angeles as “tantamount to a threat” that would prove devastating to Latinos, and he characterized Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav’s expected exit package as a “billion-dollar parachute.”
The transaction carries an enterprise value of $111 billion, a figure carried by both the Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter.
Political and Industry Pressure for a Settlement
The proposed merger has divided stakeholders. California Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Xavier Becerra have publicly pressured Bonta to settle the lawsuit and avoid a prolonged court battle, according to both outlets. Theater owners and two major Hollywood unions—the Directors Guild of America and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees—have likewise urged a negotiated resolution. The Hollywood Reporter reported that twelve state attorneys general, the DGA, IATSE, theater owners, and much of the industry prefer a settlement. Cinema United, which had opposed the merger, now seeks a settlement with enforceable protections. The three largest exhibitors endorsed the deal after Paramount provided written commitments on theatrical output and release windows.
The Writers Guild of America and the Teamsters have opposed the merger. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the Writers Guild’s objection centers on the reduction in competition for writing services that would result from combining two major employers.
David Ellison, whose family is central to the Paramount side of the transaction, had been scheduled to meet with Bonta, but the attorney general canceled the meeting and accused Paramount of “playing games” and leaking details, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Commitments, Financing and Economic Constraints
Paramount has said it would invest $30 billion annually in production and release at least 30 films a year. The Hollywood Reporter examined the substance of those pledges. Warner Bros. has 19 films scheduled for 2027 and Paramount has 16, for a combined total of 35 films if the companies remain independent competitors. The 30-film commitment therefore sits five films below that existing baseline. For 2028 the two studios already have 22 films dated and would exceed 30 regardless of ownership. The offered term runs three years.
Financing for the deal would leave the combined company with more than $80 billion in debt and roughly $3 billion in annual free cash flow, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The company has set a synergy target of over $6 billion. The Los Angeles Times reported that Ellison’s deal includes nearly $80 billion in debt financing, a guarantee from Larry Ellison, and $24 billion in equity from three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Warner Bros. Discovery itself had undergone a $43-billion buyout from AT&T in 2022. Paramount laid off roughly 2,000 employees after closing its Skydance merger in August 2025, the Times noted.
The Hollywood Reporter argued that the acquisition’s financing depends on cost savings that many of the employment and production protections sought by settlement advocates would constrain. Paramount has countered that the industry is shrinking and that a combined company would better protect jobs. One alternative floated in the Reporter’s analysis is for Paramount to own both companies without fully integrating them. Content-spending plans at rival platforms provide additional context: Netflix plans to spend $20 billion on content in 2026, Disney expects $24 billion, and Amazon estimates near $20 billion.
Los Angeles County’s analysis identified thousands of positions exposed to the merger; an independent examination cited by The Hollywood Reporter placed the exposure higher.
Competing Views on Jobs and Consolidation
LULAC maintains that the current structure of the deal would crush Latino employment and diminish Latino representation on screen, and therefore wants Bonta to continue blocking it. Paramount argues that industry contraction makes combination the more reliable path to preserving production and jobs, and has offered output floors and window commitments to theater owners in support of that position. Political leaders including Newsom, Bass and Becerra, together with the DGA, IATSE and major exhibitors, have prioritized ending uncertainty through settlement. The Writers Guild has focused on the loss of competitive bidding for writing services that would follow from fewer major employers.
The tension between those positions leaves the California attorney general’s office at the center of negotiations whose economic arithmetic remains contested.