Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery announce $111 billion merger under Skydance
David Ellison becomes CEO of Skydance, a new company combining Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, after the $111 billion deal cleared US and European regulators.
Key facts
- The $111 billion merger of Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery was announced on Tuesday, according to NPR Arts.
- The combined company is called Skydance. David Ellison is CEO and Ynon Kreiz, former head of Mattel, is co-CEO.
- Skydance controls Paramount+, HBO Max, MTV, Comedy Central, the Food Network, CNN and CBS News.
- The Writers Guild of America and 12 state attorneys general tried unsuccessfully to block the merger with lawsuits.
- Under a settlement with the states, the combined studios will make 30 films a year for the next few years.
Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery announced their merger on Tuesday, according to NPR Arts. NPR Arts reported that "a new era in Hollywood is set to begin" with the new company, called Skydance. The deal is valued at $111 billion. David Ellison takes over as CEO, with help from his billionaire father Larry Ellison and investors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries, NPR reported.
Ellison said in a statement: "From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere." In a post on X last week, he wrote that combining the studios is not "rewriting history" but "equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine."
According to NPR, Skydance controls the two companies' streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max, along with MTV, Comedy Central and the Food Network. It also controls two news outlets, CNN and CBS News. Ellison told CNBC in March that the company holds a library of 15,000 films, including Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Mission Impossible, Top Gun and The Godfather. NPR reported that he outbid Netflix for the assets.
NPR reported that the merger faced months of public protests and passed legal and regulatory challenges in the United States and Europe. The Writers Guild of America and 12 state attorneys general tried unsuccessfully to block it with lawsuits. As part of a settlement with the states, Ellison agreed the combined studios will make 30 films a year for the next few years.
Ellison announced that Ynon Kreiz, the former head of Mattel, will be co-CEO, NPR reported. Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who headed Warner Bros. Pictures, are out. NPR reported that critics remain skeptical, and that many viewers and journalists worry about what might happen to CNN, because David and Larry Ellison are allies to President Trump.
Context
Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures are both more than 100 years old, according to NPR. The combined company, Skydance, holds the two studios along with their streaming services, television networks and news outlets.
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