Ellinson Threatens Paramount's Exit From California
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- David Ellison told senior Paramount staff the company will begin relocating from California as soon as Oct. 1 unless the Warner Bros. Discovery merger closes by month's end — a threat aimed at California AG Rob Bonta, who called it 'blackmail'.
- Paramount asked the judge overseeing the case to force the 12 state attorneys general and the WGA (which has also sued to block the merger) to post a $1.88 billion bond as leverage to reach a settlement before the March 2027 trial.
- Ellison had previously written to Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Laura Friedman promising to 'keep both of these legacy studios operating' in California — a commitment he's now walking back after the deal ran into regulatory trouble.
- States shortlisted for Paramount's potential new home include Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia — mirroring Larry Ellison's Oracle HQ move from California to Texas in 2020 and his planned relocation to a new Nashville campus.
- At an Aug. 5 senior team meeting on the Paramount lot, Ellison claimed the relocation could save approximately $500 million in taxes and other costs, though Cal State Northridge tax professor Robert Johnson notes California's corporate income tax is apportioned by where customers are located, not where the HQ sits.
- USC professor JD Connor called the move 'strategically unwise,' citing industry clustering theory, while actor Noah Wyle told Variety: 'I can't think of anything that would less engender you to the population of this industry than to say you're going to take Hollywood out of Hollywood.'
Why it matters: If Paramount and Warner Bros. actually leave California, the state loses thousands of jobs and breaks a century-old studio cluster that the UK and Australia have spent years trying to lure away. The threat also breaks Ellison's written promises to Sen. Schiff and Rep. Friedman, and his $500 million savings claim collapses once California's HQ-independent corporate income tax is factored in.
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