David Ellison attended President Trump's State of the Union address to Congress in February. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Logo text A Senate hearing over Paramount‘s blockbuster $111 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery will move forward without the sale’s primary player David Ellison.
The mogul’s Paramount policy team informed Sen. Cory Booker, the top Democrat on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, that Ellison won’t be able to attend the Washington, D.C. hearing due to an undisclosed death in the family.
“Regretfully, Mr. Ellison is unable to be in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, as he is attending a funeral due to a death in the family,” Paramount policy exec Ted Lehman wrote in a reply to Booker.
Lehman added, “As discussed in person with you earlier this year and in our written statement to the Antitrust Subcommittee at your request, our view on the proposed Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery deal is quite straight forward: We believe the transaction should be reviewed on the merits. And on the merits, the transaction is procompetitive.”
In a letter sent on Monday to the Paramount mogul, Booker had sharpened his words toward the executive in an effort to get Ellison to testify. “As the leader of the company seeking to execute one of the largest media mergers in American history, your continued unwillingness to engage with Congressional oversight is itself a matter of public concern,” the Senator had wrote.
More to come.
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