Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery, which will soon merge, officially has a name: it will simply be “Skydance,” according to Chairman and CEO David Ellison.
Ultimately, Ellison chose the name of his original film production company, Skydance Media, to encompass everything incorporated into the new conglomerate.
The deal forming the new Skydance is expected to close on Oct. 6, the companies said. The merger will bring together two of Hollywood’s largest film studios; streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+; and television companies including CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central, Food Network and more. The new company’s entertainment franchises will span Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and other hits, the DC Universe, “Yellowstone,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Top Gun” and Nickelodeon’s Children’s Empire.
Skydance will be led by Chairman and CEO David Ellison and Co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief who will join the company on October 5.
The company plans to move its Class B common stock from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange, where it will begin trading on October 6. The company intends to change the stock’s ticker symbol from “PSKY” to “SKYD.” It also intends to amend its certificate of incorporation to change the company’s name to “Skydance Corporation.”
“Paramount and Warner Bros. have shaped over a century of culture,” Ellison wrote in an X Friday post announcing the Skydance name, the first tweet from a newly created account. “By combining them, we’re not rewriting history – we’re equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative home above all for bold, quality storytelling.”
Ellison continued: “We chose this name for several important reasons. First, in bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. together, we wanted to preserve what made each of these studios iconic. Both have distinct identities, extraordinary legacies and brands that have resonated with audiences for generations. We never wanted a new corporate identity to diminish, alter or eclipse either. Instead, we wanted a name that would give the combined company a identity of its own while allowing Paramount and Warner Bros. – and all of our extraordinary brands – to stay in the spotlight.
“We have big goals for Skydance and we intend to pursue them with passion, imagination and a willingness to take smart risks,” Ellison wrote. “At the same time, we will honor what makes Paramount and Warner Bros. special: giving both studios the opportunity to grow, tell more interesting stories, and deliver those stories to an even wider audience around the world, thanks to the scale and capabilities of Skydance. I couldn’t be more excited about what we will build together.”
Ellison ultimately won his year-long campaign to secure a massive $111 billion deal to merge Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, including a bidding war over Netflix (which had a deal to buy Warner Bros.’ streaming and studio businesses) and the settlement of an antitrust lawsuit brought by 12 states seeking to block the deal.
The Paramount-Warner Bros. deal cleared its final hurdle after a judge overseeing the 12-state antitrust lawsuit on Sept. 30 approved the settlement between Paramount and state attorneys general.
Industry wackos had playfully nicknamed the pending combo as “ParaBros” and “WarnerMount,” but no one expected either to be the company’s official moniker.
Skydance will have a mountain of debt, estimated at more than $80 billion, after taking on the debt burden from previous mergers and acquisitions incurred by Paramount and WBD and raising new debt financing. Paramount is issuing approximately $42.4 billion in bonds and is additionally taking out $8.5 billion and €850 million in new loans to help finance the Warner Bros. deal. and repay existing debt.
The new company will be controlled by David Ellison and his father, Oracle founder and billionaire Larry Ellison, alongside Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners.
Larry Ellison personally guaranteed $46.7 billion in equity financing for the WBD buyout. Additionally, Paramount has planned approximately $24 billion in commitments to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. According to Paramount, the three Middle East funds will hold 38.5% of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. capital.
Here’s Ellison’s post, which includes a look at the merged companies’ entertainment properties:
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