Paramount’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. draws controversy

Paramount’s Warner Bros. bid barrels toward antitrust trial

Paramount’s bid to acquire fellow entertainment giant Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) has been mired in controversy and drew a lawsuit from critics who argue the deal is bad for the movie-making and media business.

As David Ellison , the company’s top executive and an ally of President Trump, wages a public relations and legal defense campaign advocating for the merger, a Democrat-led suit seeking to stop it appears likely headed for a jury trial in California next spring.

The case took a dramatic turn this week, when California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) called off a planned settlement meeting over what he said were leaks orchestrated by Paramount publicizing details of previous meetings between the two sides, tainting the negotiating process.

The company and state government have been trading barbs in court and the media for weeks, with Paramount’s top legal officer saying earlier this month the company was considering leaving its headquarters in Southern California if Bonta does not drop his suit.

The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo breaks down the latest here .

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter , we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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Pennsylvania attorney general accuses Snapchat of failing to protect children in new lawsuit

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday (R) announced a lawsuit Tuesday, accusing Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, of failing to protect children from compulsively using its platform. The complaint, filed this week, alleges Snapchat knowingly lies about the frequency of adult-themed material like drug use or sexual content to maintain a 13+ app rating in app stores. “Once they have you signed up and logged in, …

Wisconsin district attorney declines to charge Musk over $1M voter giveaway

A Wisconsin state prosecutor declined to charge technology billionaire Elon Musk with election bribery for his $1 million check handouts to voters during the state’s Supreme Court election last year. In a letter shared Tuesday with The Hill, La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke (D) said his office decided against pressing charges since, in the end, “nobody was paid anything of value for voting or promising …

Paxton unveils data center plan, joining other GOP candidates in calling for restrictions

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) unveiled a plan Monday to place restrictions on data centers if elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the latest GOP candidate to take a stronger stance against the controversial AI infrastructure. Paxton laid out his four-point plan, vowing to “fiercely advocate” for Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) state-level data center plan and sponsor or back various federal legislation. This includes legislation …

Claim deadline nears for $68 million Google Assistant settlement

(NEXSTAR) – If you purchased a Google device or lived in a home with a Google Assistant-equipped device in recent years, you may qualify for a payment in a multi-million-dollar class action settlement. Google previously agreed to pay $68 million to settle a lawsuit that accused its Google Assistant of recording personal conversations without prompting, unbeknownst to those being recorded. The Assistant is typically triggered …

News we’ve flagged from t he intersection of tech and other topics:

Instagram head Adam Mosseri begins testimony at Meta child social media addiction trial ( Reuters )

SpaceX plans to build a $100 billion spaceport in Louisiana ( CNBC )

OpenAI’s head of data centers has left the company ( Wall Street Journal )

Branch out with other reads on The Hill:

China: New US sanctions on Iran ‘will only further intensify tensions’

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Tuesday the latest U.S. sanctions on Iran “will only further intensify tensions” between the two countries. “Economic warfare and maximum pressure will not help resolve the issue. They will only further intensify tensions and conflicts, create spillover risks,” Lin told reporters, according to CNN. The Treasury Department announced Monday it was expanding its authority to …

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