One of the biggest media mergers in history became official Tuesday, as Paramount Skydance completed its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and the combined company took a new name: Skydance.
Shares of the combined company began trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “SKYD,” and Warner Bros. Discovery stock stopped trading on Nasdaq, the company said in its closing announcement. Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders are receiving about $31.02 per share in cash. It brings together the Paramount and Warner Bros. film studios, HBO and HBO Max, CBS, CNN, DC and a cable portfolio that controls nearly one-third of basic cable programming. Chairman and CEO David Ellison said earlier this month that the Skydance name allows Paramount and Warner Bros. to remain distinct brands.
Who’s in charge
On Monday, Ellison and his new co-CEO, former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz, announced the leadership team that will run the combined company, according to TheWrap. Ellison will focus on long-term strategy, creative direction, technology and capital allocation, while Kreiz will handle day-to-day management and integration.
The lineup includes several familiar names from both sides of the deal:
- Casey Bloys, the longtime HBO content chief, becomes co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance’s direct-to-consumer streaming business.
- George Cheeks becomes co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance TV.
- Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein will co-chair the Skydance Motion Picture Group.
- James Gunn and Peter Safran remain co-chairmen of DC Studios.
- JB Perrette takes business leadership roles across TV and streaming.
- Andy Gordon is president.
In news, Mark Thompson will stay on as chairman and editor-in-chief of CNN Worldwide, and Bari Weiss will remain editor-in-chief of CBS News, with no oversight of CNN, TheWrap reported. CNBC reported that CBS Sports chief David Berson will lead the company’s global sports group.
“Together, Paramount and Warner Bros. will form a creative-first home with the scale, imagination and technology to define entertainment for a generation,” Ellison said in a statement.
How we got here
The deal caps more than a year of maneuvering, according to a CNBC timeline. After Warner Bros. Discovery rejected several Paramount offers in fall 2025, it struck a deal on Dec. 5, 2025, to sell its studios and streaming business to Netflix in a deal worth nearly $83 billion. Three days later, Paramount launched a hostile, all-cash bid of $30 per share for the entire company.
Paramount raised its offer to $31 per share in February. Netflix declined to match and walked away on Feb. 26, and Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery signed a definitive merger agreement the next day. Shareholders approved the deal in April, and the Justice Department signed off in June.
The final hurdle came in July, when a group of state attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta sued to block the merger, warning of higher prices and lower-quality content. The European Union approved the deal on July 22 with some concessions. On Sept. 21, Paramount settled with the states. That agreement includes requirements on how many theatrical films the combined company must release each year and how much it must spend on them, CNBC reported.
What it means for audiences
For moviegoers, the settlement’s theatrical commitments are meant to keep a steady flow of films reaching theaters, including the Valley’s multiplexes, rather than shifting to streaming only. For viewers, the bigger questions involve how HBO Max and Paramount+ will eventually be combined, what happens to cable channels such as TNT and CNN, and how the newsrooms at CNN and CBS News will be run under one owner.
“Our goals as a team are to establish Skydance as the premier Hollywood content engine and home for the world’s leading storytellers,” Kreiz said. A full list of the company’s executive leadership team is expected soon now that the deal has closed.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). File photo of the main entrance gate at Paramount Pictures studios in Hollywood.
Sources: Skydance Corporation closing announcement; CNBC; TheWrap.
This article was produced with AI assistance and is based on reporting from CNBC and TheWrap.