David Ellison threatens to move Paramount out of California if antitrust case goes to trial

After October 1, Paramount will have to begin paying Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a “ticking fee” of $7 million per day. The reasons for not wanting to do this are obvious; should the trial begin on March 2, as scheduled, Paramount would be on the hook for an extra $1.2 billion. Per Puck, Ellison suggested to shareholders that they would save $500 million in taxes per year by moving out of California and would make some money by selling the Paramount or Warner Bros. studio lots, though the company would still maintain a “creative hub” in California, where many of its vendors and talent are. The Paramount board is said to have already signed off on the move. 

There’s decent reason to think that Ellison might be bluffing here, though. For one thing, he’s known to just really like living in California, having already moved much of Paramount from New York to the Golden State last year when it was acquired by Skydance. For another, moving a company of this size (or even beginning to) in less than two months is no small undertaking and would probably trigger a decent amount of resignations, especially given that people inside the company are already anticipating layoffs should the merger go through. (Uprooting your whole life only to be laid off six months later is not an especially enticing offer to most people.) The move would certainly only turn more of the creative community against the move. What’s more, the company doesn’t yet know where they’d ultimately even go, with Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee, which have already made overtures to the company, said to be in the running. Still, there’s at least one reason Ellison could go through with it: If Bonta refuses to negotiate, Ellison doesn’t have many options left.