新闻标题：联邦法官批准派拉蒙与12个州的和解协议一位联邦法官已批准派拉蒙公司与12个州的和解协议。这些州曾因派拉蒙收购华纳兄弟 Discovery 而提起诉讼，该协议的达成使得双方能够尽快完成这笔价值810亿美元的巨额并购交易。
WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS CHICAGO — A federal judge has now granted Paramount’s settlement agreement with 12 states that sued over the company’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, allowing the companies to soon close their $81 billion mega merger.
在美国地方法官阿拉塞莉·马丁内斯-奥尔金（Araceli Martínez-Olguín）周三发布的裁决中，她认定双方提出的和解协议是“一种公平、合理且基于诚信的解决方案”，能够有效应对各州在诉讼中提出的竞争问题。派拉蒙此前将这场反垄断诉讼视为完成并购的最后一道障碍，并表示计划最早在10月初完成对华纳兄弟的收购。
In a Wednesday order, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín ruled that the proposed consent decree was a “fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms” alleged by the states’ lawsuit. Paramount previously called the antitrust challenge the last hurdle ahead of closing its Warner merger, and signaled that it aims to close its Warner acquisition as soon as early October.
马丁内斯-奥尔金的裁决发布后不久，派拉蒙公司宣布：现任玩具巨头美泰（Mattel）的首席执行官伊农·克雷兹（Ynon Kreiz）将于10月5日加入派拉蒙公司，与大卫·埃里森（David Ellison）共同担任合并后公司的联合首席执行官。
Shortly after Martínez-Olguín’s ruling on Wednesday afternoon, the company announced that Ynon Kreiz — current chief executive at toy giant Mattel — will join Paramount on Oct. 5 and serve as co-CEO alongside David Ellison of the combined company.
此次合并将使好莱坞仅存的两家传统电影制作公司——派拉蒙与华纳兄弟——重聚在一起。HBO Max（该平台拥有《哈利·波特》等众多影视作品）以及 CNN 等有线电视网络，也将与 CBS、《Top Gun》系列作品以及派拉蒙旗下的流媒体服务 Paramount+ 同属一个集团旗下。
A Paramount-Warner marriage will bring together two of Hollywood’s last five legacy studios . HBO Max, a library full of titles including “Harry Potter” and cable networks such as CNN will also find themselves under the same roof with CBS, the likes of the “Top Gun” franchise and the Paramount+ streaming service.
这12个州的首席检察官（由加州总检察长罗布·邦塔 [Rob Bonta] 领导）于7月提起诉讼，最初的目标是彻底阻止此次并购。他们认为，派拉蒙与华纳的合并会“扼杀市场竞争”，导致消费者（尤其是电影观众和有线电视用户）的选择减少。
Top prosecutors from 12 states — led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta — sued in July with an initial goal of blocking the merger altogether. They alleged a Paramount-Warner combo would “extinguish competition” and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly movie theatergoers and cable customers.
上周，各州同意通过派拉蒙的新承诺来达成和解：派拉蒙承诺在未来五年内增加在美国的电影制作规模，投入数百万美元设立专项基金以帮助因并购而失业的工人，并加强对 CNN 和 CBS 的内容审查机制。
Last week, the states agreed to settle these claims through new commitments from Paramount, including pledges to increase film production in the U.S. over the next five years, commit millions of dollars to a fund aimed at supporting workers displaced by the merger and establish new editorial monitoring of CNN and CBS.
在9月21日宣布这项协议时，Bonta表示，该协议的目的是“保护人们的职业生涯、他们在加利福尼亚州建立起来的生活基础，以及他们家庭所依赖的生计”，同时强调这并不代表对合并行为的支持。
When announcing the deal on Sept. 21, Bonta said the settlement was about “protecting people’s careers, the lives they’ve built here in California, the livelihoods their families rely on,” while maintaining it was not a vote of support for the merger.
然而，许多批评者立即谴责该协议是屈服于企业压力的结果，并认为协议中的条款过于宽松、缺乏约束力。Martínez-Olguín并未立即批准这些条款；她在周四的听证会上表示，法院并非这类协议的“橡皮图章”，她和其他许多人一样，对该协议仍有疑问。
Many critics of the tie-up, however, quickly decried the deal as capitulating to corporate pressure and said the proposed terms were too weak. Martínez-Olguín didn’t greenlight the terms right away — maintaining at a hearing on Thursday that the court isn’t merely a “rubber stamp” on a settlement of this kind and that she, like many others, still had questions.
法官允许那些反对该协议的第三方人士（包括“阻止合并”联盟（Block The Merger）和“联合拉丁美洲公民联盟”（League of United Latin American Citizens）的成员）通过提交书面意见（amicus briefs）向法院表达他们的反对意见。她还要求Paramount公司以及相关州政府回应民主党参议员Cory Booker的来信，后者呼吁对协议进行更彻底的审查。
The judge granted outside critics of the settlement — including members of the Block The Merger coalition and the League of United Latin American Citizens — a brief window to share their opposition with the court through amicus briefs. She also instructed Paramount and the settling states to respond to a letter from Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, who called for a more thorough review of the deal.
不过，在周三发布的裁决中，法官得出结论：这些修改条款的尝试并不足以构成“法律违规行为”，因此法院无法以此为由拒绝双方达成的协议。尽管如此，“阻止合并”联盟仍认为该协议实际上是一个“毫无约束力的、无效的协议”。
By Wednesday’s order, however, she concluded that the hopes for settlement terms to go further “do not rise to the level of legal violations upon which the Court can reject the parties’ negotiated resolution.”The Block the Merger coalition on Wednesday maintained the settlement was a “toothless” deal.
“如果允许派拉蒙（Paramount）与天空舞蹈（Skydance）及华纳兄弟探索公司（Warner Bros. Discovery）的合并继续进行，而不对相关企业结构进行任何实质性的整改，那么这将导致大量工作岗位流失、扼杀创造力、削弱独立新闻媒体的发展，并损害我们的宪法第一修正案赋予的权利，”“阻止合并”（Block the Merger）组织在一份声明中这样表示。
“Allowing the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger to move forward with no meaningful structural remedies will cost jobs, mute creativity, weaken independent journalism, and damage our First Amendment rights,” Block the Merger said in a statement.
不过，该组织补充说：“如果这次企业收购真的有什么积极意义的话，那就是人们现在已经彻底清醒过来、开始关注这个问题了——他们的愤怒情绪是不会消退的。”美国编剧工会（Writers Guild of America）也在今年7月各州提起诉讼后不久，于上周与派拉蒙达成了和解协议，承认自己无法独自继续这场法律斗争。
But, the coalition added, “if there is one discernible benefit to the approval of this corporate takeover, it’s that people are now wide awake and paying attention –- and their anger is not going to fade away.”The Writers Guild of America, which had filed its own suit shortly after the states in July, also reached a settlement agreement with Paramount last week — concluding that it couldn’t continue its legal fight alone.