The Justice Department will not challenge Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing a major hurdle for the $111 billion deal, the agency said Friday.
The merger would consolidate the ownership of two major movie studios; two major streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max; and two television news networks, CNN and CBS News, under the leadership of the tech scion David Ellison.
The scale of that combination has raised concerns that it could reduce the number of buyers for TV and movie scripts and potential employers for actors and crew members, driving down wages and the prices paid for creative material. The Justice Department blocked a publishing deal in 2022 over similar claims.
In an unusual statement announcing its decision, the Department of Justice said its investigation of the deal had included hours of depositions, interviews and meetings that “all led to the same conclusion: The film and television industry is highly dynamic, and the proposed transaction is not likely to harm competition or American consumers.”
That statement could help Paramount fight any future challenges. Some state attorneys general have pledged to take a hard look at the deal, and could bring their own case. Also, an antitrust regulator in Britain said this week that it would launch its own investigation of the deal.
A spokeswoman for Paramount, Susan Friedman, said in a statement on Friday that the merger would result in a “stronger company” that could succeed “in an industry increasingly defined by intense competition for audiences, talent, technology and investment.”
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Amazon officially announced the 2026 Prime Day start time yesterday and the early deals are now live. We very much expect more early discounts to land this week and next in the lead up to Prime Day 2026, but there are already deep discounts on networking gear, Kindle accessories, and up to 50% off Ring smart home bundles, AirPods Pro 3, and Google gear, plus more.
Early Amazon Prime Day deals
Update 6/11: Amazon has now dropped AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Max 2 down to new all-time low pricing as part of its Father’s Day and early Prime Day deals:
AirPods Pro 3 $179 (Reg. $249) – New all-time low
AirPods 4 $99 (Reg. $129)
AirPods Max 2$499 (Reg. $549) – New all-time low
Amazon has organized all of its early Prime Day deals on this landing page so you can find them quickly. As per usual, the earliest of these deals are delivering notable price drops on the Amazon eero Wi-Fi gear we featured already, but you’ll also find up to 50% off Ring smart home gear, and more:
Early Prime Day deals on Amazon Devices up to 65% off
Early Prime Day Ring smart home deals
Here are some of the highlight Ring offers we have uncovered thus far – you’re looking at up to 50% off the list prices here:
Ring Battery Doorbell with Indoor Cam Plus $70 (Reg. $160)
Ring Indoor Cam 2-pack $50 (Reg. $80)
Ring Battery Doorbell 2K 2-pack $90 (Reg. $200)
And even more…
Early Prime Day top tech deals
Apple AirPods Pro 3 $199 $179 (Reg. $249)
Apple AirPods Max 2 $510 (Reg. $549)
15-inch M5 MacBook Air 16GB/512GB from $1,099 (Reg. $1,299) – Amazon all-time low
Google Pixel 10a 128GB $449 (Reg. $499)
Google Pixel 10a 256GB $549 (Reg. $599)
Google Pixel 10 128GB from $599 (Reg. $799)
Google Pixel 10 256GB from $699 (Reg. $899)
Google Pixel 10 Pro 128GB $749 (Reg. $999)
Google Pixel 10 Pro 256GB from $849 (Reg. $1,099)
Google Pixel 10 Pro 512GB from $969 (Reg. $1,220)
Google Pixel 10 Pro XL 256GB $949 (Reg. $1,199)
Google Pixel 10 Pro XL 512GB from $1,019 (Reg. $1,320)
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold 256GB from $1,499 ($300 off)
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold 512GB from $1,619 ($300 off)
Early Prime eero deals

The Justice Department has signed off on Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the way for a merger that will unite two historic Hollywood studios and reshape the American entertainment industry.
In a statement, the department said it determined that the massive merger was “not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers.”
The Justice Department said it reached that conclusion after receiving extensive feedback.
“Over the course of a rigorous eight-month investigation led by the Division’s career staff, the Division received from the Parties over two million documents,” it said in a statement. It also said that it heard “extensive” advocacy from third parties during the process.
The news was first reported by Politico.
Paramount owns a 114-year-old film studio, the Paramount+ streaming service and the CBS broadcast network. Warner owns a 116-year-old film studio, the HBO Max streaming service and a suite of cable channels, including CNN.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has vowed to “honor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company.” The 43-year-old media executive is the son of technology magnate Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle and an ally of President Donald Trump.
But the deal has faced blowback from some Hollywood professionals and government regulators.
In an open letter released in April, more than 1,000 entertainment professionals said the deal would “further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries — and the audiences we serve — can least afford it.”
The merger could draw legal challenges from state attorneys general. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has said his office is investigating the tie-up, and a person familiar with the matter said New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office is part of that probe.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has publicly advocated against the deal, said the Justice Department’s green light was “terrible news for every American.”
“This fight isn’t over,” Warren said in a post on X. “State AGs must block this merger.”
Bonta’s office said its investigation was ongoing and otherwise declined to comment on the Justice Department’s move.
European Union officials are reviewing the merger over the deal’s financial backing from three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. In an April filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Paramount said its acquisition of Warner is backed in part by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi’s L’IMAD Holding and the Qatar Investment Authority.

Google is suing to dismantle the infrastructure behind an alleged massive AI-powered cybercrime operation.
On Friday, the tech giant announced a lawsuit against an alleged Chinese cybercrime network called Outsider Enterprise, which Google says uses AI in its campaigns to send scam text messages impersonating Google and other brands to steal passwords and credit card numbers.
Outsider Enterprise has financially scammed “hundreds of thousands of victims” with losses “estimated in the millions.” The group deployed 9,000 fake websites, one million fraudulent web domains, and 2.5 million texts sent to Android users in a two-week period, according to Google.
The company said, “55,000 spam texts were flagged by Android users in just two weeks this past May — that’s more than two text spam complaints a minute.”
Google said it uses “AI-powered tools to fight AI-powered scams,” which enable the company to detect scams and alert users of suspicious calls and text messages, leading to the interception of more than 10 billion scam messages a month.
The company said it has been collaborating with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block the scam text messages, and said it is coordinating with the FBI.
An FBI spokesperson told TechCrunch that the bureau, in coordination with Google and Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs, seized several domains used by the cybercriminals, as well as Shopify storefronts and accounts used to test the operation’s phishing service.
The spokesperson said that since July 2023, Outsider Enterprise’s phishing platform enabled cybercriminals to steal “at least an estimated 3,870,000 stolen credit cards and a corresponding estimated $1.9B in losses.”
Inside Outsider Enterprise
In its complaint filed as part of the lawsuit, Google laid out the evidence it gathered against people involved in the Outsider Enterprise operations, whom the company said are foreign-based cybercriminals whose real identities are unknown. This group “built, maintains, and uses a turn-key, online software suite that enables criminals, regardless of technical skill, to publish fraudulent websites designed to rob victims and enrich themselves,” according to the complaint.
Google said this “phishing-for-dummies” software called Outsider, which costs $88 per week or $200 per month, allows operators to create fake websites with the help of AI platforms, including Google’s own Gemini. The fake sites impersonate several services and companies, such as telecom providers, financial institutions, government agencies, and retailers.
To lure people to the fake websites, the cybercriminals collaborate with one another to send victims malicious text messages, or purchase ads. The common goal is to steal passwords and corresponding multi-factor codes as well as financial information, which the scammers can do by receiving the data that victims input into the fake websites, with the information being transmitted through Outsider’s platform in real time.
“Part of the Outsider software’s appeal is the ease with which someone with limited technical expertise — like many members of the Enterprise— can purchase the software, execute various phishing attacks, and, upon purchase, meet other members of the Enterprise who are proficient in other areas,” Google wrote, referring to Telegram channels where the cybercriminals can collaborate, train each other, discuss strategies, and develop phishing attacks. “The Enterprise brazenly coordinates its efforts in open and largely uncoded discussions on Telegram.”
According to Google, the Outsider platform allegedly offers cybercriminals “more than 290 pre-built templates that mimic the legitimate websites” that generate replicas of real websites “in minutes,” along with guides on how to “weaponize AI-generated code,” as well as a dashboard to track progress of phishing campaigns. The cybercriminals have allegedly used Google Drive and Google Cloud infrastructure to host the phishing websites.
“The Outsider software has been used to create over a million phishing websites to swindle innocent victims out of millions of dollars,” Google wrote in the complaint.
To give an idea of the scale of Outsider Enterprise’s operation, Google said that over a five-month period, from November 14, 2025 to April 14, 2026, the company detected more than 1.59 million URLs connected to it.
Google said the Outsider Enterprise operation is made up of several groups of cybercriminals: those who develop and maintain the phishing software and website templates; those who supply lists of targets curated from public records, social media, and data breaches; a “spammer group” that provides tools and the infrastructure to send scam texts in bulk, which includes smartphone banks, SIM cards, and modems; and those who monetize the stolen credentials and launder the stolen money.
The cybercriminals have stolen “at least 36,000 payment cards issued by financial institutions in 95 countries,” according to Google.
The company accused the people behind Outsider Enterprise of impersonating Google and its brands, of infringing its copyright, of racketeering activities, of committing wire fraud, and false advertising. With the lawsuit, Google is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, and an order to stop the criminals from carrying out their activities.
This story was originally published at 10:26 a.m. PDT and has since been updated with new information from Google’s complaint, and the FBI’s comment.

The U.S. Department of Justice has signed off on Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery , clearing the merger of federal antitrust concerns.
“The Division has completed its analysis of the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. and determined based on the evidence received in its investigation that the transaction is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers,” the department said in its determination.
A Paramount spokesperson said in a statement the company was “grateful for the Department of Justice’s thorough review of this transaction, as well as the work of the other agencies that have completed their reviews and provided clearance to date.
“This deal is pro-competitive, resulting in a stronger company better positioned to compete against dominant technology platforms in an industry increasingly defined by intense competition for audiences, talent, technology, and investment,” the spokesperson said. “We remain focused on completing the transaction as soon as possible and delivering its benefits to consumers, creators, and the entertainment industry as a whole.”
It’s an important milestone for the roughly $110 billion deal, though it could still face legal challenges from state attorneys general. California AG Rob Bonta has been among the officials reviewing the proposal, and the deal “remains under investigation by the California Department of Justice,” his office said in a statement Friday.
Paramount’s stock was up about 3% in after-hours trading. Politico first reported the government approval.
Paramount CEO David Ellison told investors during the company’s April earnings call that the deal was on track to close by September, after which point a so-called “ticking fee” kicks in, making the deal more expensive. The proposed merger has already received WBD shareholder approval.
In late February, Paramount offered $31 per share to acquire all of WBD’s assets, which includes cable TV networks like CNN and TBS, the Warner Bros. film studio and streaming platform HBO Max. The proposal came following multiple offers and upended a deal with Netflix for that company to acquire WBD’s streaming and film assets.
Paramount is still awaiting regulatory approval from European officials. Earlier this week the European Union’s regulator arm began reviewing the proposed deal and set a July 14 deadline for vetting, according to a notice on its website.