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The Paramount-WBD Merger Is Now a Trial Story — and That Changes the Business Math Entirely
8/2/2026
A temporary restraining order was supposed to be a speed bump. It's becoming a wall. When I last wrote about the Paramount-WBD merger, the story was about the $7 million-per-day cost of delay and a Q3 closing timeline that was already slipping. The situation has since moved into…
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