UK and EU Probe Paramount's $110B Warner Bros Deal

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has opened a formal Phase 1 investigation into Paramount Skydance's roughly $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, examining whether the combination threatens a substantial lessening of competition in media and content markets. The CMA aims to conclude its initial review by around August 7, after which it can escalate to an in-depth Phase 2 probe lasting up to 24 weeks.

In parallel, the European Commission is running its own antitrust review, with a Phase 1 decision expected by early July, after Paramount formally filed for EU approval last week. The deal values Warner Bros. Discovery at about $31 per share in cash, or roughly $81 billion in equity and $110 billion including debt, and the companies have guided to a close in the third quarter of 2026 subject to regulatory clearances.

Dual UK and EU scrutiny is standard for transactions of this scale, but it lengthens the path to closing and introduces remedy risk: regulators could demand asset divestitures or behavioral commitments that reshape the economics of the merger. Investors in WBD will track the spread between the offer price and the trading price as a real-time gauge of perceived completion risk.