Makan Delrahim, Paramount Skydance’s chief legal counsel, has argued that some opponents of David Ellison’s company’s disputed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery are motivated by “anti-Semitic views.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Delrahim spoke about the industry backlash to Paramount’s deal with WBD. To date, more than 5,500 filmmakers, actors, and other Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter opposing the deal. House Democrats called on California Attorney General Rob Bonta to “closely scrutinize” the agreement.
“Politics is part of life. It’s part of the beautiful process of democracy,” Delrahim said. “We’re very sympathetic to people in Hollywood in general, but this deal will actually create more, better, more exciting work. David (Ellison) is a consummate film buff and a filmmaker himself. For the first time, we’re getting an owner who comes from the creative side.”
The executive added: “To be honest, there’s a lot of fear-mongering, especially from people in Washington, D.C., who are running political campaigns. Some of them are really trying to jeopardize this deal because of their own anti-Semitic views. Regulators and law enforcement will see through that.”
In an interview published June 1, Delrahim did not elaborate on his claims or identify which opponents of the Paramount-WBD merger held “anti-Semitic views.” Variety asked Paramount to explain his comments.
In September 2025, a group called the Palestinian Film Workers circulated a pledge not to cooperate with Israeli film institutions that are “engaging in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” Days later, Paramount issued a statement condemning the pledge as “silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality.” (Palestinian film workers emphasized that the pledge targets companies and organizations, not individual Israelis.)
As previously reported by Variety, David’s billionaire father Larry Ellison, a major financial backer of Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros., is said to be a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a donor to the US-based nonprofit Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Meanwhile, Delrahim denied in an interview with the LA Times that Paramount Skydance had any “commitment” from President Trump or his administration to get the WBD deal approved. “There is no agreement with the president,” he said.
When asked if Paramount was prepared to defend itself against a potential antitrust lawsuit from California AG Bonta, Delrahim said: “Well, no matter what field you’re in, whether it’s antitrust or preparing for a football game, people always do their worst. We’ll do our best to prepare for that and hope it doesn’t happen. So we’re preparing for challenges from everyone. But I don’t think there’s any serious antitrust enforcer looking at the facts, the law, the economics that would make this deal a violation of antitrust law. ”
Last month, Delrahim sent a letter to Bonta in which he “reiterated our continued commitment and support to California movie theaters and audiences” “in response to certain misinformation about the market expressed in recent public comments.” He also noted Ellison’s repeated promise that the combined company would release at least 30 films a year. Additionally, he said Paramount+ and HBO Max do not have the scale to “effectively compete” with larger subscription streaming players Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and Amazon’s Prime Video, respectively.
Regarding the possibility of Paramount’s acquisition of CNN through the WBD deal, Delrahim commented, “Antitrust regulators would see it as synergistic. It could allow for cross-programming, and more people could be exposed to the great programming that CBS News has. They would benefit from each other’s independent strengths.”
In April, Paramount disclosed in an FCC filing that 49.5% of the combined Paramount and WBD will be owned by foreign investors, and approximately 38.5% of the new company will be owned by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Variety has confirmed that three Middle Eastern countries have pledged a total of $24 billion to Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros.
Before winning the WBD deal, Paramount said its proposed WBD acquisition had cleared a Department of Justice milestone following the expiration of a statutory waiting period for Paramount’s “Certification of Compliance” with the Department’s second request for information under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act. However, the Department of Justice has the freedom to object to the merger even after the HSR waiting period ends. Earlier this year, Omeed Assefi, the acting head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said that approval of the Paramount-WBD deal would “absolutely” be delayed for political reasons, given the Ellison family’s friendly relationship with President Trump.
Delahim joined Paramount in October 2025 as chief legal counsel. Previously, he was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins, where he advised Skydance Media on its acquisition of Paramount Global. Prior to that, he served as an assistant attorney general overseeing the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice during President Trump’s first term. Delahim is Iranian-American and grew up in Los Angeles.
