Judge Extends Temporary Restraining Order Pausing Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Merger

A federal judge extended a temporary restraining order pausing the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger by another two weeks, meaning that the companies won’t be able to close the transaction at least until Aug. 17.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín wrote on Thursday that the TRO was extended to give the parties in the case more time to set an extended schedule for legal proceedings.

She wrote hat she “finds good cause to extend the TRO on multiple grounds, including the need to resolve two preliminary injunction motions, the parties’ disputes regarding the schedule and the proposed format of the preliminary injunction hearing, and Defendants’ stated willingness to abide by the terms of the TRO for some weeks into the future.”

Paramount has called for a three-day evidentiary hearing before the judge, who is weighing whether to grant a preliminary injunction, which likely would halt the merger for a lengthy period of time as the legal process plays out.

The judge called for Paramount and the plaintiffs in the litigation, a dozen state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America, to “meet and confer” and try to “reach a consensus on a path forward.” She said that a joint report on those talks would be due on July 24.

As of now, plans for an Aug. 3 hearing on the case are still on. The judge also wrote that the WGA, which filed its own lawsuit to block the merger, also would be allowed to participate in the hearing on that date.

The judge’s original TRO, issued on Monday, ran for 14 days until Aug. 3. She noted in her filing that she cannot extend a TRO further. She wrote that “if the parties can reach agreement and stipulate to maintain the TRO, the Defendant companies held apart, they may agree to an extended briefing and hearing schedule.”