Paramount’s $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery is moving toward a possible closing within the next two weeks after the settlement of two antitrust lawsuits on Monday, despite a late legal delay.

A federal judge postponed a hearing at which she was expected to review the settlement, leaving one more complication for a transaction that dealmakers already see as a major response to the growing power of technology companies in entertainment.

“It is evidence that, really, tech has won,” Simpson Thacher partner David Hernand said during a panel at the Financial Times Business of Entertainment Summit on Thursday.

Hernand, whose law firm is not involved in the transaction, argued that technology companies have proved particularly effective at electronic distribution, whether through cable or the internet. That has placed traditional entertainment businesses, long dependent on broadcast and cable, in a race to catch up with Apple, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and other competitors.

The pending combination, in his assessment, reflects how legacy companies are attempting to secure their place in that changed landscape.

A Traditional Media Counterweight

Two other members of the panel have direct connections to the Paramount-WBD deal.

Aaron Sobel, a private equity partner at Apollo Global Management, said Apollo supplied one-third of the merger’s financing. He described the transaction as critical to giving a traditional media company a chance to compete against Big Tech.

“I don’t think you can overstate how important getting that deal done was,” Sobel said. He argued that the two companies might not have been able to continue without combining and emphasized the importance of Paramount CEO David Ellison’s support for the business.

Sobel said the industry had reached a crossroads before the deal, with Netflix positioned to become even more dominant if the merger failed to materialize. He now sees momentum shifting back toward traditional media, even as companies across the business increasingly adopt similar strategies.

Ellison’s willingness to bet on intellectual property, together with the capital available to support the combined company, was central to Sobel’s positive view of the transaction.

Alex Michael, LionTree’s senior managing director and global head of sports and entertainment, called the merger “a big deal, literally and figuratively.” LionTree advised Paramount on the transaction.

Michael characterized it as a major domino that the entertainment business had been waiting to see fall. Sobel, meanwhile, predicted positive knock-on effects across theatrical movies, production, distribution, and global films and events.

He also acknowledged that the combination runs against the broader direction in which the industry has been moving. Rather than accepting technology companies’ continued expansion into entertainment, the deal represents a large-scale wager on a more traditional media business.

How Paramount Overtook Netflix

Netflix had agreed last December to acquire WBD’s studio and streaming operations. Paramount eventually displaced the streamer after more than a dozen offers by making a richer proposal for all of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria spoke shortly before the dealmakers’ panel, where the company’s unsuccessful pursuit of WBD became a key topic.

Sobel said Netflix had “kind of showed their hand” by trying to buy Warner Bros. He also pointed to the company’s share-price performance and argued that shifts in engagement were visible to the market.

In his view, companies without highly valuable intellectual property are likely to move toward more traditional strategies in the coming years, particularly in live events and sports. Sobel predicted that the dividing line between legacy entertainment businesses and technology companies will continue to narrow.

“I think a lot more of these companies are gonna look similar, not different,” he said.

Dealmakers Look Beyond Paramount-WBD

The panelists did not expect Paramount-WBD to be the final transaction reshaping the entertainment sector.

An NBCUniversal executive asked what path her company should pursue after Comcast announced over the summer that it plans to spin off NBCU. That move is projected to be completed by mid-2027.

Hernand suggested Comcast could consider dividing the portfolio beyond its announced plans, potentially separating NBC from Universal. He went further by floating a combination of Universal and Sony, while acknowledging that such a move would provoke considerable outrage in Los Angeles.

Sobel noted that Comcast Co-CEO and Chairman Brian Roberts and his family control the company, a structure that can limit merger-and-acquisition options. If Roberts were willing to be more flexible about his voting power and financial exposure to the business, Sobel said Comcast should be broken up.

He also proposed that Netflix and Comcast could eventually come together across their digital and media operations. That idea was presented as Sobel’s view, not as a confirmed negotiation or plan.

What Happens Next?

The immediate focus remains the Paramount-WBD settlement and the delayed federal hearing. The $110 billion deal is still expected to close within the next two weeks, but final completion has not yet occurred.

If it does close, the panelists expect consequences well beyond the two companies themselves—from theatrical production and distribution to the way traditional media groups compete with technology platforms. For dealmakers watching the sector, Paramount-WBD may be one major domino, but it is unlikely to be the last.