California Attorney General Rob Bonta is facing calls from his Republican challenger Michael Gates and the California GOP for an investigation into whether political funding connected to Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings' family influenced his office's decision to file a lawsuit against Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Gates, the Republican nominee for California attorney general, claims that Bonta has used his taxpayer-funded office as a "favor factory" for his donors and that the lawsuit is politically motivated. He points to campaign-finance records showing that Hastings' wife, Patty Quillin, contributed $1 million to Smart Justice California Action Fund in March 2022, an independent committee working to boost Bonta and other progressive prosecutors.
The California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin expressed similar concerns, stating that the circumstances raise questions about Bonta's motives. "This smells like Sacramento at its worst," she said. "Rob Bonta takes Netflix money, then turns around and uses his office to kneecap a Netflix rival."
Bonta's press office rejected the allegations in a statement, pointing to the office's February announcement that it was examining potential purchases of Warner Bros. by either Netflix or Paramount. The lawsuit against Paramount resulted from clear-cut antitrust analysis, based on the facts and the law, according to Bonta's office.
The Justice Department has already cleared the acquisition after an eight-month investigation involving more than 2 million documents. Britain's competition regulator also cleared the deal Thursday, leaving Bonta's state-led litigation as the principal remaining regulatory obstacle. Paramount has agreed not to close until five days after a ruling on the merits of June 2027.
Bonta's complaint alleged that the merger would give the combined company approximately 27% of wide-release theatrical film distribution and basic-cable channel licensing. However, federal antitrust officials determined that the transaction was unlikely to harm competition and could create a stronger streaming alternative to Netflix, Amazon, and Disney.
NTC Report coverage is based on reporting from the original publisher.
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