The Paramount Warner Bros merger is done. Paramount Skydance completed its roughly $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, and the combined company now goes by a single name, Skydance, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD, according to the company’s announcement and CBS News.
What Skydance now owns
The deal puts two century-old film studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, under one roof along with DC, HBO, CBS, CNN, CBS Sports, TNT Sports, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, MTV, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV and BET. It also combines two big streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max, plus Pluto TV. The company said it will run three segments: Studios, Direct-to-Consumer and TV Media.
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders received $31.01666668 per share in cash, and WBD stock stopped trading on Nasdaq. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Skydance put the aggregate merger consideration at about $78 billion, funded with a mix of equity and debt. The roughly $110 billion headline figure reported by outlets including the BBC reflects the larger value of the transaction.
Who runs the new company
David Ellison, who led Paramount Skydance, is chairman and CEO, with former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO, CBS News reported. NPR noted that Ellison controls the company with backing from his father, Larry Ellison, and investors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. “From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor,” Ellison said in a statement quoted by NPR.
CNN chief Mark Thompson and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss keep their jobs and report separately to Ellison and Kreiz, according to Reuters, via BNN Bloomberg.
The settlement conditions behind the deal
The merger cleared after Paramount settled an antitrust lawsuit from a coalition of 12 state attorneys general led by California, and a separate suit from the Writers Guild of America. Under the terms, CBS News reported, Paramount must release at least 30 films a year in each of the first two years and cannot sell or close the Paramount or Warner Bros. studio lots in Los Angeles for at least five years. Reuters reported the film commitment rises to 32 a year for the following three years, and the BBC said missing the quota could force a sale of Paramount’s 49% stake in Miramax. Ellison also agreed to create an editorial independence board for CNN and CBS News, which some experts quoted by Reuters called likely to be “toothless.”
What changes for streaming and moviegoers
Reuters reported that Skydance plans to bring HBO Max and Paramount+ together, while Deadline said both brands appear set to survive, with HBO’s Casey Bloys pointing to a bundle as a model. The studio is already moving on franchises: Deadline reported that Steven Spielberg will steer the next live-action Transformers film, with Michael Bay in early talks to direct.
For a Warner Bros. slate that just weathered the Digger box office flop, the bigger parent brings scale but also pressure to hit release targets. The deal joins a run of massive 2026 media and tech buyouts, from the Schneider Electric PTC deal to live-entertainment bets like Live Nation’s Creator Nation.
Sources: Skydance via PR Newswire; SEC 8-K; CBS News; NPR; BBC; Reuters/BNN Bloomberg; Deadline.
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