Paramount wraps up mega Warner Bros merger to create Hollywood powerhouse Skydance

LOS ANGELES: Paramount Skydance on Tuesday (Oct 6) completed its blockbuster US$110 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, creating a Hollywood heavyweight called Skydance and handing 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 an expansive entertainment company spanning film, TV and news.

Shares of the combined company moved to the New York Stock Exchange from Nasdaq on Tuesday to trade under the ticker SKYD.

Settlements with a coalition of US states and a Hollywood writers union removed the main legal barriers to the merger, one of the largest in media history. It comes as Hollywood faces declining cable-TV subscriptions, high cost of competing for streaming audiences and persistent pressure from unions over jobs and creative workers' rights.

Ellison said last week the Skydance name was chosen to retain the individual identities of Paramount and Warner Bros studios, rather than combining them under a new brand.

Analysts, however, said the name reinforces the extent of Ellison's 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 a financial backer 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 drawing interest from other potential suitors, including Comcast.

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Ellison named Mattel's former CEO Ynon Kreiz as Skydance co-CEO to run day-to-day operations and lead the integration, while Ellison oversees creative direction and overall strategy.

The duo faces the task of combining two large companies while delivering US$6 billion in planned cost savings, a big part of which Paramount said would come from "non-labour sources" — by combining streaming technologies and cloud providers of the two companies. However, the scale of the cuts is expected to affect jobs across Hollywood.

The combined company is also expected to carry about US$80 billion in debt, putting pressure on Ellison to grow streaming, preserve cash flow from cable networks and improve theatrical film performance.

CNN chief Mark Thompson and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss would continue in their respective leadership roles at Skydance.