Red State Courts Paramount As Media Giant Considers Fleeing California

Tennessee has extended an invitation to Paramount Skydance to move its corporate headquarters to the Volunteer State amid the company’s escalating standoff with California, where the attorney general is now suing to block its planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Tennessee Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter, a Republican, wrote a letter to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, urging him to consider moving the entertainment company’s headquarters from California to Tennessee, The Hollywood Reporter learned.

California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other attorneys general sued to stop the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. The lawsuit could delay the merger and cost Paramount hundreds of millions of dollars.

“For generations, Tennessee has been one of America’s most business-friendly states,” McWhorter wrote. “Our success is rooted in fiscal discipline, low taxes, predictable governance, and a steadfast belief that government should be a partner in private-sector growth. Companies that choose Tennessee find more than a favorable business climate — they find a state committed to helping them succeed.”

McWhorter also boasted about Tennessee being “the convergence of creativity, technology, and innovation,” having “one of the nation’s strongest workforce development systems,” and maintaining the conservative values of “service, community, and the importance of family.” 

“As Paramount Skydance writes its next chapter, Tennessee offers a compelling proposition: a state where creativity and technology converge, where talent is developed intentionally, and where innovation is embraced,” McWhorter wrote. “We would welcome the opportunity to share our vision for how Tennessee could help shape the future of Paramount Skydance and its talented team.”

Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee has expressed similar sentiments online, stating in an X post, “Paramount has played an important role in shaping American culture, & we’d welcome the opportunity to see the next chapter of that story unfold in the Volunteer State.”

The Daily Wire recently reported that friends and advisers close to Ellison told him to “consider shifting his business out of” California and to move the company’s $30 billion in planned spending elsewhere, according to a recent Semafor report.

Paramount currently owns CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, and Paramount Pictures. By acquiring Warner Bros., the company would gain rights to brands including DC Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, HBO, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, CNN, Food Network, and Oprah Winfrey Network. Ellison hopes the move can make Paramount a suitable competitor to rivals like Netflix and Amazon.

The states allege the merger would give the combined company control of nearly one-third of theatrical motion pictures and nearly one-third of basic cable programming. Paramount responded to the lawsuit in a statement, calling it “wrong on both the facts and the law.”

FedEx, Tesla, Oracle, Chevron, and AutoZone are all major companies that have left California in recent years in favor of red states like Tennessee and Texas.