Paramount Skydance boss David Ellison and his father, tech billionaire Larry Ellison, were sued by a Paramount shareholder who alleged they reached an “illegal” deal with President Donald Trump to secure US government approval for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The shareholders’ lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Delaware Court of Chancery, seeks to block Paramount’s $111 billion merger with WBD and also seeks unspecified monetary damages. According to the lawsuit, the Ellisons allegedly promised “illegal private benefits to President Trump to remove federal regulatory barriers.”

According to the lawsuit, the Ellisons’ side deal with Trump included “the opportunity to inappropriately funnel cash” to the president by settling their legal claims against CNN, as well as promises that CNN anchors Trump dislikes would be fired after the WBD acquisition. “The Ellisons’ actions not only damage the reputation of the news outlets they currently own, which are hemorrhaging viewers, but are latent liabilities waiting to be activated by a future administration,” the lawsuit says.

The complaint was filed a day after 12 Democratic state attorneys general filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the Paramount-WBD merger on antitrust grounds, alleging it would give the combined company improper control in the film and cable television markets. The WGA also sued to stop the merger, claiming it would hurt writers’ salaries and job opportunities.

In a statement, a Paramount spokesperson said: “This lawsuit recycles allegations that have already been reported and addressed. As we have consistently said: neither David nor Larry Ellison have made any commitments to any government body, state attorney general or federal agency regarding the future of CNN or any other news property, other than the goal of delivering truth-based journalism.” The company also said: “The transaction with Warner Bros. Discovery stands on its own merits. Combining these two libraries and platforms gives consumers more choice, not less: greater investment in original programming, a stronger competitor to streaming rivals, and a more durable foundation for journalism and storytelling alike. We remain confident in the fundamentals of the merger and will continue toward closing.”

The representative also cited Skydance’s summer 2025 statement regarding the Skydance-Paramount Global merger: “As with any transaction requiring regulatory approval, Skydance executives and their representatives have had routine and customary interactions with government officials, including the Administration, Congress and federal regulators… throughout its history and during the review of the proposed Paramount acquisition, Skydance has fully complied with all applicable laws, including our anti-bribery laws. nation.”

Representatives for Oracle and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Trump is not listed as a defendant.)

Since the deal between Paramount and Skydance closed in August 2025, “the Ellisons proceeded to remake CBS in the president’s image, purchasing properties he enjoyed and even hosting events in his honor,” the lawsuit says. “This helped the Ellisons, but it seems to have hurt Paramount.” Larry Ellison was a major financial backer of the Paramount Global deal and is also personally backing the Warner Bros. acquisition.

Paramount’s proposed acquisition of WBD received the green light from the U.S. Department of Justice in mid-June, which did not impose any requirements for divestitures or other concessions by Paramount Skydance. Senior Justice Department officials cleared Paramount-WBD despite objections from lower-ranking department lawyers who were inclined to challenge the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.

After Trump indicated his preference for Paramount to acquire WBD, rather than Netflix’s deal to buy Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming businesses, federal regulators took a conspicuously hands-off approach in reviewing the merger of Paramount and WBD, according to the lawsuit. According to the complaint, there has been no indication that the deal is being reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), even though Paramount has set aside $24 billion from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. According to Paramount, the three Middle East funds would own 38.5% of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Paramount has previously said that foreign investors backing WBD’s bid will have no board seats or voting shares, so a CFIUS review is not warranted.

According to the shareholder lawsuit, the lack of scrutiny of the deal between Paramount and WBD introduces risks for Paramount investors. The lawsuit said that “future presidential administrations are likely to subject such ownership structure to intense and persistent scrutiny, creating significant long-term exposure for Paramount. The court should use its equitable power to prevent defendants from obtaining personal benefits based on illegal activities.”

The Paramount investor named lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Paul Robbins, represented by Thomas Law, Public Integrity Project and Freedom of the Press Foundation. A copy of the complaint is available at this link.

Seth Stern, chief advocacy officer at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement about the lawsuit: “The economic terms of this merger, alone, make no sense to Paramount shareholders. They make even less sense given reports of the Ellisons’ commitments to Trump to ruin CNN’s reputation and viewership just as they did at CBS. CNN and CBS viewers want real journalism. If Paramount’s news networks are watered down to appease the administration, they will stop. tune in and the public will be less informed.”

Brendan Ballou, CEO of the Public Integrity Project, commented: “The richest people in America want to turn America’s biggest media outlets into propaganda machines for the president. This is bad for Paramount shareholders. This is bad for democracy. And this is deeply corrupt. This case is about exposing and stopping that corruption.”

In addition to David and Larry Ellison, the lawsuit names as defendants members of Paramount Skydance’s board of directors: Gerry Cardinale, Safra Catz, Andrew Brandon-Gordon, Paul Marinelli, John Thornton, Barbara Byrne, Andrew Campion, Justin Hamill and Sherry Lansing.

According to the lawsuit, the shareholder derivative action brought by Robbins is against “Lawrence and David Ellison, the father-son controlling shareholders of Paramount, to prevent them from benefiting from a breach of their fiduciary duty of loyalty as controllers of Paramount,” as well as against David Ellison in his capacity as CEO and chairman of Paramount Skydance “to prevent David Ellison from benefiting from a breach of his fiduciary duty of loyalty as a director of Paramount”; and “the entire Board of Paramount, to prevent them from closing a merger transaction with Warner Bros. Discovery (the ‘Merger’) that, as currently configured, would allow Paramount’s fiduciaries to benefit from an illegal bribery scheme in violation of their fiduciary duties of loyalty to Paramount and otherwise in violation of Delaware’s fundamental corporate law.”

The plaintiff, Paul Robbins, is currently a Paramount shareholder and has “been a continuous Paramount shareholder since before the August 7, 2025 combination of Paramount Global and Skydance” that created Paramount Skydance, according to the lawsuit.