Why Gavin Newsom has stayed deafeningly silent over California AG’s lawsuit to block Paramount-Warner Bros. deal

Everyone in Hollywood — and beyond — has weighed in on Paramount’s planned $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. But not Gov. Gavin Newsom, and insiders say it’s all by design.

Despite watching his attorney general Rob Bonta lead a coalition of states in a lawsuit filed earlier this month that has effectively paused the merger — at least for now — Governor Newsom has not issued a statement laying out his position on the deal, which many within Hollywood view as an extinction-level event for the state’s signature industry. 

Sources close to the Governor’s office say this is partly by design. “It’s never been his style to just fall in line and become a spokesperson for an issue that he isn’t totally supportive of. It’s just not his thing and I’m not sure he wants all this noise right now,” said a source familiar with Newsom’s thinking. 

“He doesn’t think the (merger) is that bad from a deal standpoint and I think he’s been somewhat persuaded by proponents that it is not the doomsday scenario that its critics have painted it to be,” said another informed source who noted that Newsom was “caught off guard” by the exact timing of Bonta’s antitrust suit, which he filed on July 13 with 11 other state attorneys general. That suit has since been joined by the Writers Guild of America. 

And yet a third source, also part of Newsom’s inner circle, questioned whether the antitrust case has enough legal standing in the Governor’s eyes to ultimately scuttle the deal. “Gavin does not like to lose and if he thinks something is a losing argument he’s going to stay on the sidelines,” said this source.

In recent months, the lame-duck Governor, who terms out in January and is gearing up for a presidential run, has been very selective about when and where he allocates his political capital. As Page Six Hollywood reported, he even risked angering some of his longtime donors by refusing to endorse any of the Democratic candidates in the state’s Gubernatorial primary as the race tightened in May.

Most polls show Newsom leading the current field of mostly theoretical Democratic presidential candidates who could run in 2028, so when it comes to the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, he has some rather complex calculations to consider when staking out his position. 

Newsom’s most extensive remarks on the merger occurred back in June when he appeared on journalist Aaron Parnas‘s substack podcast. “We believe in a fair independent process of evaluating the merits and demerits of this merger,” Newsom told Parnas.

He then continued, “What does it mean when you have a handful of people who have a disproportionate influence on what we see and when we see it including on Tik Tok?” Newsom then pivoted to attacking Trump: “I think crony capitalism and state capitalism need to be scrutinized by the feds first but also by the states.” 

According to several sources, the other X factor in all of this is the Ellisons. The 43-year-old David Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Skydance while his father, billionaire Larry Ellison, is the co-founder of Oracle and is largely bankrolling the acquisition. The stakes in the merger escalated after it was reported that Paramount Skydance leadership is considering leaving the state and incorporating the company outside of California if Bonta’s suit moves forward. 

Newsom has a somewhat tangled relationship with the Ellisons. According to several sources, he and David have a good relationship and the two have met twice in the last year: once in Malibu and once in Sacramento. Newsom’s relationship with the older Ellison dates back much further. Newsom was the mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, the city where Ellison lived for nearly four decades before selling his Pacific Heights home for $45 million in December 2025. Ellison’s official primary residence is now in Florida and while he still owns an extensive real estate portfolio in California (much of it in Malibu) he holds a critical view of Newsom and moved Oracle’s headquarters from California to Texas.

Yet another factor is also at play. In November, Californians will vote on a ballot measure known as the billionaire’s tax, which will impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on resident billionaires. Newsom has come out against the ballot measure, although he says he does support a similar tax at the federal level. According to sources, the specter of Paramount’s deal getting scuttled by the state while simultaneously the billionaire’s tax passes — as he attempts to run for president — would likely not be the best look for Newsom heading into the primaries. “That would be one bumper sticker on the back of the proverbial Volkswagen bus too many,” said one source.

Others have been more vocal. We certainly know what President Trump thinks (in favor). We know what Joaquin Phoenix, Kristen Stewart, Florence Pugh, David Fincher, and Denis Villeneuve along with hundreds of other writers, directors and actors think because they signed a petition opposing the deal. We know where the major Hollywood guilds stand and what the mayors of LA and New York — Karen Bass and Zohran Mandani — think as well (all opposed).

Newsom is staying safely on the sidelines till the dust settles.