David Ellison has finally brought together Paramount Skydance properties and Warner Bros. Discovery properties under the same roof, creating a new conglomerate, Skydance. And cuts will follow as the companies consolidate.
The merger officially closed Tuesday morning, with CEO Ellison and his co-CEO, Ynon Kreiz, celebrating the moment with staffers and saying that under Skydance, creating great stories will be at the heart of “everything we do.”
Paramount Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, HBO, HBO Max, Paramount+, CBS, CBS Sports, TBS, TNT, CNN, Pluto TV, Discovery, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, and many other linear channels will now fall under one single umbrella.
Getting to this point did not come without drama, as Ellison had to wrestle WBD away from Netflix in early 2026, which initially had sought to acquire Warner Bros. Studios, with the linear properties being left to create a new entity.
To win the merger, Paramount offered what WBD called a “superior” bid, which included an all-cash offer of $31 per share.
After that, various state attorneys general, along with the Writers Guild of America, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger, which was ultimately settled in September and came with movie production guarantees and an independent board ensuring editorial independence for CNN and CBS News.
The new conglomerate will come with roughly $80 billion in debt, which the company must now work to pay down. Unfortunately, one of the easiest ways of accomplishing this is through layoffs.
Ellison and Kreiz acknowledged future cuts in a statement saying, “Integrating two companies will bring change, including difficult decisions that affect our workforce. We are committed to handling this process thoughtfully and respectfully.”
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