Who is Ynon Kreiz, David Ellison’s co-CEO at Skydance?

David Ellison spent two years struggling to build his media empire. Now he’s calling on a heavyweight to help him handle it.

Ynon Kreiz, outgoing CEO of Mattelwill serve as co-CEO of the combined group Paramount Skydance And Discovery of Warner Bros.which will be called simply Skydance, when the merger is finalized on Tuesday.

The new entity will bring together the famous Paramount and Warner Bros. film studios. the CBS broadcast network; a broad portfolio of pay television networks including CNN, TNT, MTV and BET; and streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, all under one roof.

Kreiz’s appointment to an executive role alongside Ellison speaks to a governance question that has surrounded Ellison’s aggressive pursuit of legacy media assets: The tech executive and son of billionaire Larry Ellison can buy it, but can he run it?

Just 18 months ago, Ellison was CEO of film production company Skydance with a limited portfolio of hits, namely the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible franchise and “Top Gun: Maverick.”

In August 2025, it successfully completed an acquisition of Paramount, a deal worth approximately $8 billion. About a month later, he launched his campaign for WBD, sparking a bidding war that would ultimately result in a deal worth about $110 billion on a corporate basis to merge two of Hollywood’s largest media companies.

Kreiz is a 30-year veteran of the media space, arguably best known for bringing “Barbie” to the big screen in 2023. He has earned a reputation as a turnaround man, with roots in entertainment despite his more recent move into consumer goods.

He joins Paramount Skydance on Monday and becomes co-CEO after closing Tuesday.

Many on Wall Street have praised Kreiz for reviving toymaker Mattel through various cost-cutting measures, although others question whether his previous entertainment experience is enough to help Skydance through this merger — and how successfully he and Ellison will share duties.

“We view Ynon Kreiz’s appointment positively, as his operational experience and brand/IP focus uniquely positions him to help lead the integration of Paramount Skydance and WBD and build the combined company into a best-in-class content and IP platform,” Citizens Bank analyst Matthew Condon said in a research note released this week.

Ellison will focus on the company’s long-term strategy, creative vision, technology and capital allocation, and Kreiz will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the company and the integration of the combined businesses, the company said in announcing his role.

“Kreiz has extensive experience in media and entertainment prior to his arrival at Mattel,” Matthew Dolgin, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, wrote in a research note this week. However, “we do not necessarily believe that he is the best imaginable choice to accomplish this task.”

“He is undoubtedly an experienced man who fills a void that previously existed, leaving the company in a better position with him, in our opinion, than it was without him,” Dolgin wrote. “Although his title is co-CEO, we view Kreiz as a chief operating officer.”

Prior to his eight-year tenure as CEO of Mattel, Kreiz was CEO and president of Maker Studios, which was sold to The Walt Disney Co. in 2014. Before that, he was chairman and CEO of Endemol Group, one of the largest independent television production companies in the world. Earlier in his career, Kreiz co-founded Fox Kids Group Europe, a children’s entertainment company, also acquired by Disney in 2002.

“It’s a great fit for Paramount,” Eric Handler, managing director and senior media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital Partners, told CNBC.

When Kreiz took over as CEO of Mattel in 2018, he was the fourth CEO in four years to take control of the toy company. At that time, the Fisher-Price, Barbie and American Girl brands were struggling to adapt to changing consumer tastes and Mattel was reeling from the recent bankruptcy of Toys R Us.

“Mattel had a revenue decline for about four years, going from being fairly profitable to losing money, and it turned it around in about two years,” Handler said.

Wall Street analysts told CNBC that Kreiz’s experience righting the ship at Mattel would help Skydance navigate a sprawling and complex merger.

“He’s off to a really good start (at Mattel) because he’s made some structural improvements,” said Gerrick Johnson, an equity research analyst at Seaport Research Partners. “They eliminated a lot of SKUs, streamlined lines of business… They did a great job of cutting costs by about $1 billion right off the bat, becoming more flexible and faster to market.”

As part of these cost-cutting measures, Kreiz restructured Mattel’s supply chain, reduced the number of toys produced, closed several manufacturing plants and reduced the overall workforce by 2,200 employees. He prioritized building free cash flow and deleveraging the company’s balance sheet.

“Net-net, we believe that Mr. Kreiz’s operational experience in restructuring and turning around Mattel, coupled with his focus on developing world-class intellectual property, uniquely positions him for the role of co-CEO and to lead the integration of Paramount Skydance and WBD – an integration built largely on high-spending synergies and, ultimately, the creation of a best-in-class content and intellectual property platform,” Citizens’ wrote Condon.

One of the first major initiatives Kreiz launched when taking over Mattel was the launch of an in-house film division. The strategy was to use the box office as a catalyst for toy sales.

Through this venture, Mattel partnered with the Warner Bros. studio. to bring Barbie to the big screen. The film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, grossed more than $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office and revitalized the Barbie brand.

Even though “Barbie” was a box office success, most of the film’s revenue went to Warner Bros. and to its cinema partners. Mattel announced it received a revenue boost of just $150 million in fiscal 2023, the year the film was released.

“There’s no denying that Barbie has been nothing but a huge success,” Johnson said. “But for Mattel, that didn’t translate into a bottom line. Mattel generated an additional $90 million in operating profit that year, which was 13 percent growth on a consolidated basis with the ‘Barbie’ movie. Barbie revenues were up 3 percent that year, but Barbie revenues since then are down 22 percent…So, a massive deterioration of that Barbie brand since then.”

Some Wall Street analysts suggest Kreiz has focused too much on the entertainment side of Mattel’s business, leading to stagnant toy innovation and slowing sales.

“Post-Covid, profits have been very stagnant,” Johnson said. “Revenue has been flat. Margin growth has stalled. Innovation has stalled, and it seems like a classic, you know, distraction.”

Mattel shares have also “went back and forth during Kreiz’s tenure,” Jaime Katz, a senior analyst at Morningstar, wrote in a research note published Tuesday. While shares roughly doubled to the mid-$20 range during his tenure as CEO, they eventually fell back to around $15 each.

“Kreiz’s strategy to turn Mattel into a high-performing, intellectual property-driven toy company has largely failed,” Katz said.

Still, analysts view Kreiz as an asset to Skydance and Ellison as the company begins a lengthy merger process.

The merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery in Skydance could take between two and three years in total, Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham, wrote in an investor note released Thursday.

Paramount Skydance said it intended to realize $6 billion in savings from the merger within three years of closing. At the same time, Ellison and Kreiz will face approximately $79 billion in debt once the transaction is completed.

“Over time, we expect cost synergies to be greater than the $6 billion promised,” Martin wrote.

Although Paramount executives have said the majority of that savings target will be on non-labor costs, it remains to be seen exactly where the savings will come from.

Ellison previously announced plans to combine streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single platform for consumers. This could naturally lead to a reduction in the infrastructure around these businesses.

In cinema, Skydance will now host Warner Bros. Studios. and Paramount in addition to its DC studio – and will have ambitious production goals to achieve.

To settle a lawsuit brought by a group of state attorneys general seeking to block the deal on antitrust grounds, Paramount Skydance agreed to release at least 30 films per year in theaters in 2027 and 2028 and at least 32 films per year in 2029, 2030 and 2031. It’s unclear how much the studios could absorb the cost cuts while still meeting those quotas.

At CBS, Skydance agreed to ban the firing of writers on the broadcast team for at least five years.

Yet a report from the Los Angeles Department of Economic Opportunity suggests that 4,500 film and television jobs in the county will be at risk over a three-year period when the companies consolidate operations.

“(Kreiz has) a big task ahead of him,” Handler said. “You know, he’s facing a huge debt and a massive integration situation. But I think he’ll do a great job with that.”