Skydance Blasts Off: Can David Ellison Make Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Fly? — SkimNews
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- The $111 billion Paramount-WBD merger closes Oct. 6 as Skydance Corp.; the combined company's stock moves from Nasdaq to NYSE, with its ticker changing from "PSKY" to "SKYD"
- David Ellison outbid Netflix in February with a $31/share offer (nearly 2.5x the pre-deal stock price) after Warner Bros. Discovery's board rejected his offers 8 times and CEO David Zaslav ghosted him following Netflix's December 2025 streaming deal
- Ynon Kreiz joins as co-CEO, recruited from Mattel (where he oversaw the "Barbie" film and pushed the toy maker to profitability) with a $31.5 million fully vested stock signing bonus
- Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguin approved the antitrust settlement Sept. 30 after Ellison threatened to pull Paramount out of California; 12 Democratic state attorneys general led by California's Rob Bonta had filed suit over market concentration in theatrical and basic cable
- Trump's Justice Department approved the deal in June without conditions, and regulators in 68 jurisdictions worldwide cleared the merger with minimal pushback
- David Zaslav stands to earn at least $550 million in stock and cash — including $34.2 million in cash severance — once the deal closes under his golden-parachute package
- The merged Skydance portfolio brings together Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, DC, Yellowstone, Mission: Impossible, Top Gun, and the Nickelodeon kids empire, with Paramount film heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein tapped to oversee both movie studios as Warner Bros. film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy depart
Why it matters: Ellison's $111 billion Skydance gives one company control of HBO, CNN, CBS, DC, and Harry Potter — but S&P Global's Jawad Hussain called the massive debt load the biggest hurdle, even as $34.2 million in cash severance to departing WBD CEO Zaslav is already locked in at closing.
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