Paramount Pictures

Source: Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

The deadline for the $8bn merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media has been automatically extended for 90 days.

Under terms agreed by the parties and specified in a Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) filing in February, the extension would kick in were no deal in place by April 7.

The proposed merger has met with approval from the SEC and European Commission but must still get the greenlight from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

That agency is run by Donald Trump appointee Brendan Carr, who threw down a couple of major obstacles as he began his review into the merger earlier this year.

Carr has said he will block mergers of media giants that champion diversity, equity and inclusion, conforming to the White House’s anti-DEI policy.

The FCC chair is also monitoring the legal situation involving a legal filing by Paramount Global-owned CBS network to dismiss Trump’s $20bn lawsuit stemming from a pre-election interview on 60 Minutes with last year’s presidential rival Kamala Harris.

CBS lawyers have called Trump’s lawsuit an “affront” to free speech. Both parties recently appointed a mediator.

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