Ari Emanuel wants the attorneys general to drop their case and get out of the way.
The CEO of TKO Group Holdings published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday backing Paramount's pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, calling the antitrust lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys general "trash" and arguing it threatens the very competition it claims to protect. According to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, the piece ran under a headline arguing the merger "could save Hollywood."
"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."
The deal, valued at approximately $110 billion, was once considered likely to close over the summer. That changed after a judge showed skepticism toward the defense, and Paramount agreed to go to trial rather than push for an earlier close. The case is now not expected to resolve before June 1, 2027, or an earlier favorable ruling.
Emanuel's backing is not without complications. His company TKO owns the UFC, which signed a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount last year under incoming owner David Ellison. That financial relationship goes unmentioned in the Journal's tagline identifying him, which describes him only as "executive chair and CEO of TKO, which does business with movie studios." The tagline also does not note that he serves as executive chair of WME Group, the corporate parent of major talent agency WME, whose clients do business with both Paramount and Warner Bros.
Emanuel's core argument is that the attorneys general have defined the competitive market too narrowly. The lawsuit frames the deal as collapsing two major studios into one within the theatrical releasing market. Emanuel says that framing ignores reality.
"You know an antitrust case is trash when it ignores some of the fastest-growing competitors in the market," he writes. The plaintiffs "pretend Amazon MGM, A24 and Lionsgate don't exist and that Netflix isn't leaning into theatrical films with its coming release of Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew (which I suspect will whet its appetite for more)."
He also argues that every business decision in Hollywood is made in the context of a much wider competitive field. "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."
Emanuel also sat next to President Donald Trump at a UFC event hosted at the White House last month. Ellison was seated approximately 20 feet away, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The deal has significant opposition inside the industry as well. A group of prominent names, including many WME clients, signed an open letter opposing the merger in the spring. The Writers Guild of America filed its own antitrust suit focused on monopsony concerns. SAG-AFTRA expressed concern about the deal this week unless enforceable safeguards are put in place. Supporters of the deal include director James Cameron and AMC CEO Adam Aron.