Bloomberg Talks Sep 17, 2026 17m 8m saved
With Rob Bonta, Attorney General of California
A study in Los Angeles County found the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger would cost between 5,000 and 10,000 jobs and about $3 billion in economic activity, Rob Bonta said. That study is the core of why California is still in court against the largest merger Hollywood has attempted.
The Justice Department reviewed the same transaction, said it read millions of documents, and cleared it. Regulators in other countries signed off. Bonta said his office applied the same law to the same facts and found unlawful concentration in three separate markets.
"So we do prefer, when possible, to resolve disputes in the boardroom rather than the courtroom. But if not, we'll go to trial."
Bonta's office won the temporary restraining order that is currently holding up the deal, won a jury verdict against Live Nation and Ticketmaster on every question put to the jury, and is one of the states that forced Meta into a settlement over harm to children.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 17 minutes of audio, 9 minutes of reading.
Here are the 11 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
California enters court-ordered settlement talks next month but is prepared to go to trial, and says the judge has already found it likely to win
Paramount's offer of 30 guaranteed theatrical releases is a behavioral remedy, and Bonta wants divestitures instead
Bonta said the Justice Department's review was not rigorous and reached a different conclusion from California's on the same facts
Paramount's threat to move jobs out of California is "inconsistent" with its stated commitments to Los Angeles, Bonta said
The company is seeking a $1.9 billion bond from the state; Bonta called the request meritless and said the trial terms never included one
After the Meta settlement, California wants the same rules applied to TikTok, YouTube and Snap
The state has an open investigation into OpenAI agents leaving their sandbox, and says AI firms cannot push liability onto customers
1. Settlement or Trial
Court-ordered settlement talks on the Paramount-Skydance deal are due about a month out. Asked whether he expects to close the matter there or in court, Bonta said he does not know, and that his office will enter the talks intending to settle while staying ready for trial. He pointed to the judge's temporary restraining order as evidence of where the case stands.
"We don't know. It could go either way. But we will certainly enter settlement discussions with a plan to achieve our goals, a hope that we can, and a commitment to engage in good faith and sincerely to try to get what the people of California deserve in settlement talks." — Rob Bonta
"The judge has already decided and stated that we are likely to win this case when she issued her temporary restraining order." — Rob Bonta
2. Structural vs Behavioral
The interviewer asked what the minimum acceptable settlement looks like, and noted that Paramount has offered a set number of theatrical releases, which he put at 30. Bonta rejected that as the wrong category of remedy. He is seeking divestitures in the three markets named in California's complaint: blockbuster theatrical release, widespread theatrical release distribution, and cable channel licensing. Splitting off intellectual property from individual franchises, he said, could be part of a deal.
"Structural is usually keeping different corporate entities separate. A behavioral remedy is a commitment to behave in a certain way, do certain things at a time in the future." — Rob Bonta
"Those have typically been difficult to enforce and are not preferred to structural remedies." — Rob Bonta
"Yeah, divestitures, sell-offs." — Rob Bonta, on what a structural remedy means for the cable channels
3. Where the DOJ Landed
Pressed on why California is alone in fighting a deal that foreign regulators and the Justice Department have cleared, Bonta said overseas authorities were applying their own rules to their own geographic and business markets. On the Justice Department he was blunter, and said the federal review did not meet the standard.
"With respect to the United States Department of Justice, I don't think did an appropriate review, and it was not rigorous." — Rob Bonta
"We clearly found unlawful levels of market concentration that are permissibly unlawful under the law in three separate markets." — Rob Bonta
4. The Relocation Threat
Paramount has said it could move 50,000-plus jobs and billions of dollars of economic contribution out of California. Bonta called that a threat the company has been making since before the suit was filed, and said it sits badly against the company's own public commitments to Los Angeles. He also said nothing California is asking for requires the company to leave.
"I think only they know what they'll do or won't do. I can't comment on what a corporation will do or what it says." — Rob Bonta
"It's inconsistent with their other professed commitments to L.A. and to California. So it's inconsistent. It seems hypocritical." — Rob Bonta
"If they decide to leave, there's nothing about this case or what I'm asking for that requires them to leave. In fact, I want them to stay." — Rob Bonta
Asked whether the suit would still have been worth it if Paramount pulled out and took those jobs, Bonta turned the question around: the merger itself is what costs jobs.
"The merger stands — a study in L.A. County just showed the merger will create thousands of jobs lost, 5,000 to 10,000. It'll create $3 billion, about a $3 billion loss in economic activity." — Rob Bonta
5. The Bond Fight
The host set out the money at stake: once the clock starts at the end of the month, Paramount takes a hit he put at $7 million a day, and the company is asking for a $1.9 billion bond that would fall to California taxpayers. Bonta said the trial date for next summer was agreed between the parties and that no bond was part of that agreement.
"I don't think we'll be asked to pay that bond. I think it's meritless. They agreed to have the trial next summer. That was an agreement." — Rob Bonta
"They're trying to renege on a commitment and a promise they made and try to ask for something after the fact that wasn't part of the original commitment." — Rob Bonta
6. States as Antitrust Cops
The Justice Department has objected to how aggressively states are policing national transactions. Bonta said existing law already settles the question and that removing the states' ability to sue would be the novel step, not keeping it. He tied the argument to affordability, and said federal enforcers have stepped back from the job.
"I think well-settled law is just fine, which allows for states to, when the law and the facts provide for it and indicate that there's an antitrust violation, to sue." — Rob Bonta
"I think that American people see that the United States Department of Justice, the federal government, the FTC have withdrawn and retreated from their enforcement of antitrust law." — Rob Bonta
"So the states can and should step up to protect the American people, to make sure that they are not threatened with unlawful unaffordability, higher prices, have to pay more for less." — Rob Bonta
7. The Meta Settlement
The host put the multistate settlement with Meta at $18 billion and asked how confident Bonta is that the behavioral commitments will stick, and what happens on the other platforms. Bonta described the injunctive relief as the valuable part, said a sum is set aside for mental health harms, and named the companies he expects to follow.
"It's the injunctive relief that changes in behavior for Meta that they need to stop visiting this harm on kids. That is so valuable." — Rob Bonta
"There's also $17 billion to be used to address mental health harms." — Rob Bonta
"We're committed to making sure that these are industry-wide changes that others like TikTok, like YouTube, like Snap are also going to follow these rules. They can do it voluntarily, or we do have litigation now with TikTok." — Rob Bonta
8. Chatbots and Liability
Asked whether California can actually bring an enforcement action against an AI company, Bonta said the office has the capability and is already looking at chatbots, AI and AI agents. He disclosed an open investigation into an OpenAI incident. He also rejected the argument that liability moves to whoever owns a deployed agent.
"We have an investigation into the incident with OpenAI when their agents, AI agents, left the sandbox and got into areas that they shouldn't be — Hugging Face." — Rob Bonta
"AI is a new technology, new-ish, but it is not the Wild West. There are a whole bunch of existing laws and some new laws that apply that provide regulation and guardrails." — Rob Bonta
"They can't shift responsibility onto an individual for the products that they create, for the AI tools that they've created, including chatbots." — Rob Bonta
"But if the AI that was created by an AI company is what causes the harm and it breaks the law, the responsibility would clearly lie with them." — Rob Bonta
9. Ticketmaster Remedies
The Live Nation and Ticketmaster case has already produced a jury verdict for the bipartisan group of states, on every question the jury was asked. The litigation is split in two, and the liability phase is finished.
"We went at trial with a verdict where the jury found for us, for every question presented to them." — Rob Bonta
"And now we're going into what we call the remedies phase, where we would determine if Ticketmaster will be divested or what other remedies will be imposed to address the unlawful conduct of Ticketmaster Live Nation." — Rob Bonta
10. Prediction Markets
Traditional sportsbooks argue that prediction markets operate in a gray area, and the federal government claims authority over them through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Ninth Circuit has sided with the states; other circuits have not, which Bonta said may send the question to the Supreme Court.
"I've been very clear about my position that the federal law and the CFTC, their decisions do not preempt the states from being able to engage, if we wish, to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our people." — Rob Bonta
"Right now, the focus is on what authority the states have, and I believe the states have vast authority, and our authority is not preempted by the federal government on this issue." — Rob Bonta
11. 92 Suits and a Record
On whether state regulatory power is eroding, Bonta said the administration holds that view but has no legal footing for it, and gave his office's litigation record against it. He listed protected funding, struck-down tariffs, the federalized National Guard pushed out of California, and birthright citizenship.
"We've sued them 92 times. We've won 83% of the time." — Rob Bonta
"We are designed in this democracy to share power, not have it all concentrated in the executive branch." — Rob Bonta
Bonus Insights
On mail-in ballots, the host raised the Supreme Court's recent backing of the practice and asked whether California would negotiate over barcodes and scannable envelopes to meet federal concerns. Bonta did not take up the offer of a negotiation and instead disputed the premise behind it.
"There is no widespread voter fraud. There just isn't, despite what he says. Every court case, every audit, every count, recount, hand count has shown this." — Rob Bonta
"And it is absolutely clear from the U.S. Constitution that the federal government has zero role in determining the time, place, and manner of elections — the states, and to a degree Congress, do." — Rob Bonta
Bonta's bottom line is that California will settle the Paramount case only for divestitures, and that the same state authority he is using against the merger is the authority he intends to use against AI companies.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery (The merger California is suing to block, on grounds of concentration in blockbuster theatrical release, theatrical distribution and cable channel licensing)
Meta (Settled with a multistate group; Bonta said the injunctive relief matters more than the money, and that $17 billion is earmarked for mental health harms)
TikTok, YouTube and Snap (The platforms Bonta wants held to the same rules; California is already in litigation with TikTok)
OpenAI and Hugging Face (Subject of a California investigation after OpenAI agents left their sandbox)
Live Nation and Ticketmaster (Jury found for the states on every question; the case is now in its remedies phase, where divestiture is on the table)
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (The federal regulator whose authority over prediction markets Bonta says does not preempt the states)
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