Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be named Skydance when their $111 billion merger closes Oct. 6, David Ellison announced, with a new co-CEO and sweeping executive changes.
David Ellison announced Friday that the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be called Skydance Corporation, ending months of speculation over the identity of a conglomerate that will consolidate two of Hollywood's oldest studios.
Ellison, who will serve as chairman and CEO, revealed the name in the first post on a newly created account on X. "Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture," he wrote. "By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine."
The merger is set to close on Oct. 6, according to regulatory filings, after a judge on Sept. 30 approved a settlement of an antitrust lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys general seeking to block the deal.
What the new company will hold
Skydance will combine the Paramount and Warner Bros. film studios; the HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming services; and television assets including CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central and Food Network. Its franchises span Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, the DC Universe, Yellowstone, Mission: Impossible, Top Gun and the Nickelodeon children's empire.
Ellison said he chose the name of his original production company partly to avoid subsuming either studio's identity. "We never wanted a new corporate identity to diminish, alter or overshadow either one," he wrote.
The company plans to move its Class B common stock from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 6, changing its ticker symbol from "PSKY" to "SKYD."
Leadership taking shape
Ellison will be joined by co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief, who starts Oct. 5 and also joins the board. Paramount said Ellison will lead strategy, creative direction, talent relationships, technology and capital allocation, while Kreiz oversees day-to-day management and integration of the combined businesses.
Kreiz received a $31.5 million signing bonus as part of a five-year deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His appointment drew attention from Reuters, which described him as a cost-cutter arriving at a company carrying substantial integration costs.
The combined company is expected to carry debt north of $80 billion, Variety reported, after assuming existing obligations from both companies and raising new financing.
Executive shakeup at the film unit
The merged motion picture division is expected to be run by Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, current co-chairs of Paramount's film group, according to Deadline, a move that would likely end the tenure of Warner Bros. film chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy.
Deadline reported that De Luca and Abdy learned they were not joining the new company from news reports rather than a direct conversation with Ellison. The pair, who joined Warner Bros. in 2022 from MGM and recently extended their contracts through 2030, oversaw a 2025 slate that grossed $4.37 billion globally and won 11 Academy Awards. Their exit comes as Warner Bros. faces a costly box office disappointment in "Digger," the Tom Cruise-led Alejandro G. Iñárritu satire budgeted between $125 million and $160 million and tracking toward a worldwide opening near $30 million.
On the streaming side, HBO content chief Casey Bloys was named to run the combined streaming business, while Paramount's chair of direct-to-consumer, Cindy Holland, is departing. CNN chief Mark Thompson has been told he will stay on. James Gunn and Peter Safran will remain at the helm of DC Studios.
A costly, contested pursuit
The roughly $111 billion deal caps a yearlong campaign by Ellison to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, including outbidding Netflix, which had reached an agreement to buy Warner Bros.' streaming and studios businesses. The transaction cleared its final regulatory obstacle when the judge overseeing the multi-state antitrust suit approved the settlement.
Analysts and industry observers have questioned how the company will manage its debt load while integrating overlapping film, television and streaming operations that employ tens of thousands of people. Cost savings of roughly $6 billion have been discussed, with deal architect Gerry Cardinale stating that most of the reductions would not come from layoffs — a claim that will be tested as the integration proceeds.