Paramount Skydance on Tuesday (Oct 6) completed its blockbuster US$110 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, creating a Hollywood heavyweight called Skydance and handing CEO David Ellison control of one of the world’s largest entertainment companies.
The deal brings together the studios behind Mission: Impossible, Harry Potter and DC Studios alongside major television and streaming networks such as CBS, CNN, Paramount+ and HBO Max — forming an expansive entertainment company spanning film, TV and news.Shares of the combined company moved to the New York Stock Exchange from Nasdaq on Tuesday to trade under the ticker SKYD.
Settlements with a coalition of US states and a Hollywood writers union removed the main legal barriers to the merger, one of the largest in media history. It comes as Hollywood faces declining cable-TV subscriptions, high cost of competing for streaming audiences and persistent pressure from unions over jobs and creative workers’ rights.
Ellison said last week the Skydance name was chosen to retain the individual identities of Paramount and Warner Bros studios, rather than combining them under a new brand.
Reuters
