Paramount Skydance completed its blockbuster $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, creating a Hollywood heavyweight called Skydance and giving CEO David Ellison control of one of the world’s largest entertainment companies.
The deal brings together the studios behind “Mission: Impossible,” “Harry Potter” and DC Studios alongside major television and streaming networks such as CBS, CNN, Paramount+ and HBO Max – forming a broad entertainment company spanning film, television and news.
Shares of the combined company were transferred from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday to trade under the symbol “SKYD.”
Agreements with a coalition of U.S. states and a Hollywood writers’ union removed key legal hurdles to the merger, one of the largest in media history. It comes as Hollywood faces declining cable TV subscriptions, the high cost of competing with streaming audiences and continued pressure from unions over employment and rights for creative workers.
Ellison said last week that the Skydance name was chosen to retain the individual identities of the Paramount and Warner Bros studios, rather than combining them under a new brand.
Analysts, however, say the name reinforces Ellison’s scope of control, highlighting how some of Hollywood’s most iconic brands now answer to him and how he has a platform to impose his strategy and culture.
In just 16 years, Skydance has gone from an independent studio to the “center” of one of Hollywood’s biggest power plays. Founded in 2010 by the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, it built its reputation as the financier and producer of Paramount’s blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick.”
After merging with Paramount last year, Skydance set its sights on Warner Bros., entering a heated bidding contest with Netflix while attracting interest from other potential suitors, including Comcast.
Ellison named former Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO of Skydance to run day-to-day operations and lead integration, while Ellison oversees creative direction and overall strategy.
The duo faces the task of combining two large companies while achieving $6 billion in projected cost savings, much of which Paramount said would come from “non-labor sources” — by combining the two companies’ streaming technologies and cloud providers. However, the extent of the cuts is expected to affect jobs in Hollywood.
The combined company is also expected to have about $80 billion in debt, putting pressure on Ellison to expand streaming, preserve cable networks’ cash flow and improve the performance of theatrical films.
CNN chief Mark Thompson and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss would continue in their respective leadership roles at Skydance.
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