David Ellison closed his roughly $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Oct. 6, putting the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. studios under a single Hollywood-based owner after a nearly yearlong battle.
The combined company, renamed Skydance Corp., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD, replacing Paramount Skydance Corp.’s Nasdaq listing. Warner Bros. Discovery shares stopped trading. The deal closed after Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied a last-minute effort to halt closure of the merger.
Warner shareholders receive $31 a share in cash plus a daily ticking fee, bringing the total to about $31.02. Ellison called the closing a “historic day,” saying the company now has the talent, resources and reach to compete.
“From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere,” Ellison said in a statement. “Now that ambition is a reality…. Our focus now turns to the future: building a company that empowers creatives, entertains audiences and rewards shareholders.”
Skydance combines Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services, and networks including CBS, CNN, TNT, TBS, Nickelodeon and MTV.
Ellison will serve as chair and co-chief executive alongside Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel Inc. chief executive who officially joined Oct. 5. Ellison will focus on long-term strategy, creative direction, technology and capital allocation, while Kreiz runs operations and oversees the integration.
“In Ynon, I’m adding a partner with strong leadership and the operating firepower this integration demands,” Ellison said in a Sept. 30 statement.
Kreiz led El Segundo-based Mattel from 2018 until Oct. 2, recasting the toymaker as an intellectual property company. Its film division produced “Barbie,” which Warner Bros. released in 2023.
HBO chief Casey Bloys becomes co-chief content officer with George Cheeks. Dennis Cinelli remains chief financial officer. Bari Weiss stays on as editor-in-chief of CBS News, Mark Thompson continues to lead CNN, and David Berson will run combined sports operations.
Departing are Warner Bros. film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy and Paramount+ head Cindy Holland. Outgoing Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav leaves with an exit package reported at more than $500 million, according to Variety.
Debt and cuts
Skydance starts out with nearly $80 billion in debt. To finance the purchase, the company on Sept. 28 announced a $44.4 billion debt offering of $32 billion in investment-grade notes and $12.4 billion in high-yield bonds.
Ellison has projected at least $6 billion in cost savings, widely expected to mean layoffs in an industry workforce concentrated in Southern California. After Skydance bought Paramount Global in August 2025, the company cut about 2,000 U.S. jobs within three months.
A major legal barrier fell Sept. 30, when U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved Paramount’s settlement with California and 11 other states that had sued to block the deal.
Under the settlement, the company must spend at least an additional $1.5 billion on U.S. film and television production over five years and release at least 30 films a year for two years, then 32 annually for three more. It will pay $30 million for each film it falls short and must divest its 49% stake in Miramax if it misses the quota.
The agreement also keeps the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles along with its two historic studio lots in the county, sets a 45-day theatrical window, creates an independent editorial board for CNN and CBS News, and funds a $47.5 million training program for displaced workers.
The Writers Guild of America separately settled its own lawsuit, winning a five-year bar on layoffs among CBS writing staff and a $17.5 million contribution to the guild’s health fund.
Opposition has not faded. The Block the Merger coalition said the deal will cost jobs and weaken independent journalism, and more than 1,400 actors, directors and filmmakers had come out against it.
Needham & Co. analyst Laura Martin said the merger “creates a new formidable global streaming competitor” to Netflix Inc. and The Walt Disney Co.
