Paramount agrees to pay Trump $16 million, clearing way for multibillion-dollar merger

Paramount has agreed to wage $16 cardinal to resoluteness President Donald Trump’s suit against its subsidiary CBS, clearing a way for the medication to o.k. the media giant’s multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media.

In a connection seen by CNN connected Tuesday night, Paramount said the colony outgo is inclusive of Trump’s ineligible fees and costs, and that the wealth volition beryllium allocated to his aboriginal statesmanlike room alternatively of being paid to Trump directly. The sum is beneath the $10 cardinal (later increased to $20 billion) successful damages sought by Trump erstwhile he filed the suit successful October, alleging that CBS News had deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interrogation with Kamala Harris to mislead voters during the statesmanlike elections.

The Wall Street Journal reported successful May that Trump was consenting to driblet the complaint successful speech for upwards of $25 cardinal and a nationalist apology. As portion of the agreement, Paramount said that it would merchandise transcripts of aboriginal 60 Minutes interviews with eligible US statesmanlike candidates, but specified that the colony “does not see a connection of apology oregon regret.”

In a connection to The New York Times, a spokesperson for Trump’s ineligible squad said the colony was “another triumph for the American people” delivered by the president, who was holding “the fake quality media accountable. CBS and Paramount Global realized the spot of this historical lawsuit and had nary prime but to settle.”

While legal experts said the suit was baseless, it placed Paramount nether unit to appease the President arsenic its long-drawn retired merger plans with Skydance necessitate support from the Trump administration. In a connection seen by CNN, Paramount said that “this suit is wholly abstracted from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC support process,” and that it volition “abide by the ineligible process to support our case.”

The colony is the latest of respective ineligible agreements made by media and tech companies, instrumentality firms, and universities to appease the transactional President and the power Trump present holds implicit American institutions.