Paramount Closes Merger With Warner Bros. Discovery to Form Skydance

Paramount closed its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, putting the tech scion David Ellison in control of a vast media empire that oversees many of Hollywood’s most valuable properties.

The deal immediately catapults the combined company, now called Skydance, to the front rank of competitors alongside streaming titans like Netflix and YouTube, just behind giants like Disney and Amazon.

“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” Mr. Ellison said in a statement on Tuesday. “We couldn’t be more excited to get to work,” he added.

There were signs that Mr. Ellison was moving at lightning speed to take control of his new empire. Warner Bros. employees who opened their laptops Tuesday morning saw them suddenly emblazoned with the new company’s logo over a field of stars. A link to a “global town hall” meeting, scheduled for 1 p.m., popped up. And an 1,705-word memo titled “Day 1” from Mr. Ellison and his co-chief executive, Ynon Kreiz, landed in their inboxes.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/business/media/paramount-warner-bros-discovery-skydance.html