Stock Market Today, July 20: Warner Bros. Discovery Falls 4% as Judge Pauses $110 Billion Paramount Skydance Deal
On July 20, 2026, a California federal judge halted the $110 billion acquisition for at least 14 days, extending legal uncertainty around the merger.
Overview
Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD), a global film, TV, cable, and streaming entertainment conglomerate, closed at $25.86, down 3.76%. Shares fell after a California federal judge paused Paramount Skydance’s (NASDAQ:PSKY) $110 billion acquisition. Investors are watching what antitrust developments come next. Trading volume reached 44.2M shares, coming in about 115% above its three-month average of 20.6M shares. Warner Bros. Discovery IPO'd in 2005 and has grown 224% since going public.
S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) closed at 7,445, down 0.17%, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) finished at 25,508, down 0.05%. Among global media and entertainment sector rivals, Netflix closed at $67.60, down 1.96%, and Walt Disney ended at $96.44, down 1.26%, as merger headlines kept Warner Bros. Discovery and its peers in focus.
Details
The Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance deal continued to run into new hurdles today, this time as a federal judge placed a 14-day pause on the acquisition via a temporary restraining order. The TV and streaming juggernauts had previously hoped to close the deal by July 22nd, but will now have an August 3rd hearing to see if the pause should be extended.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.