Paramount Shareholder Sues Ellisons, Board For Alleged Side Deal, Promises To Donald Trump

A Paramount Skydance shareholder has filed a derivative lawsuit against officers and directors of the company alleging breach of fiduciary duty in its pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery, the latest in a string of legal actions seeking to derail the merger.

Paramount shareholder Paul Robbins filed the suit against CEO David Ellison, his father Larry Ellison and Par’s ten-member board of directors in Delaware Chancery Court. It centers on claims of trading editorial independence for regulatory approval by the Trump administration. That includes alleged promises to overhaul CNN and settling a “frivolous” lawsuit by the president against 60 Minutes, followed by a series of moves to make the network’s news coverage more amenable to Trump. It says an alleged “illegal bribery scheme in breach of their fiduciary duties of loyalty to Paramount and otherwise in violation of bedrock Delaware corporate law” has damaged the the company’s reputation and set it up for potential liability in future administrations.

The suit is backed by Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Public Integrity Project.

A derivative lawsuit is filed by a shareholder on behalf of a corporation against directors, officers, or other parties that have harmed the company by breaching their duties. Since the claim belongs to the corporation, not the shareholder, any recovery goes to the corporation although the stockholder shareholder may recover litigation costs. The suit says the plaintiff Robbins “is and has been an owner of Paramount since prior to the August 2025 Paramount/Skydance combination.”

It’s the latest in a stream of legal action as the deal move forward with regulatory approvals. A group of Attorneys General led by Rob Bonta of California sued to block the $110-billion deal for antitrust violations and is seeking a temporary restraining order. The WGA unveiled a lawsuit Tuesday. A group of Paramount+ subscribers sued earlier this year to block the deal.

“The media has widely reported that Lawrence and David Ellison promised illegal, private benefits to President Trump in exchange for approval of their last media mega-merger. Specifically, in order to ensure federal regulatory approval of the merger between Ellison-controlled Skydance Media, LLC

(“Skydance”) and Paramount, the Ellisons promised President Trump up to $20 million in free advertising and reportedly encouraged Paramount’s prior ownership to settle a frivolous lawsuit the President had filed against CBS (owned by Paramount) in his personal capacity—effectively laundering a $16 million payment to President Trump through the courts,” the suit reads. “In exchange, President Trump and the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission approved the deal with little to no oversight. The Ellisons also agreed to, and did, transform CBS to make its coverage far more favorable to the President, at the cost of the network’s ratings.”

Paramount has denied any side deal for advertising.

The suit, again citing press reports, claims the Ellisons promised to make sweeping changes to CNN

including potentially firing anchors the President dislikes, in exchange for regulatory approval. “Once they acquire Warner Bros., the Ellisons will also have the opportunity to improperly funnel cash to President Trump by settling litigation he brought against CNN in his personal capacity prior to his reelection.”

“The Ellisons’ actions not only harm the reputations of the news outlets they currently own, which are hemorrhaging viewers, but they are latent liabilities waiting to be triggered by a future administration,” the suit said.

More to come