The $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger closed on Tuesday after months of speculation and controversy. Now dubbed Skydance, the company led by David Ellison has become one of the biggest players in the entertainment space.
Skydance now controls everything that Paramount and Warner Bros. previously owned independently including film studios New Line Cinema and Miramax, DC Studios and Warner Bros’ Clockwork film label, and streaming services including Paramount+, HBO Max, Pluto TV and Discovery+.
Skydance also now has control over CBS and cable channels including Animal Planet, BET, Cartoon Network, CMT, CNN, Comedy Central, Cooking Channel, Discovery, Food Network, HBO, HGTV, MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, TCM, TLC, TNT and TV Land, as Forbes reported.
The company also now owns major franchises such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Looney Tunes, Lord of the Rings, Mission: Impossible, Spongebob Squarepants, Star Trek, and Transformers.
Paramount won the right to acquire Warner Bros. last year after becoming engaged in a bidding war with Netflix. After Netflix bowed out, the company faced significant regulatory hurdles, with some critics opposing the merger by saying it would stifle the competition. Those in favor claimed the real issue was politics.
The newly formed company will combine major media assets in what’s being seen as a win for conservatives. While Ellison is not strictly partisan, he has been called “MAGA-adjacent,” and his father Larry Ellison is a big-time Republican donor.
President Donald Trump has called the Ellisons “friends” and “big supporters.”
The deal successfully cleared its final legal hurdle after a federal judge approved a settlement with 12 state attorneys general, which includes mandates to protect local studio lots, increase domestic film production, and establish an independent editorial board for CBS News and CNN.
Departing Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav thanked employees in a video posted Monday on the company’s internal portal.
“It’s been a great honor to be alongside all of you,” the exec said, per Deadline. “I hope you take pride in what you’ve built, what you’ve created, and the role you’ve played in shaping an extraordinary history.”
Ellison shared the name of the company and part of his vision for the brand going forward with a social media post last week.
“We have big goals for Skydance, and we intend to pursue them with passion, imagination, and a willingness to take smart risks. At the same time, we will honor what makes Paramount and Warner Bros. special — giving both studios the opportunity to grow, tell more great stories and bring those stories to even broader audiences around the world, powered by the scale and capabilities of Skydance,” the entertainment exec wrote in part. “I couldn’t be more excited about what we’re going to build together.”
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