Paramount Skydance Closes $110 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Merger

Paramount Skydance closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, 2026, creating a media conglomerate that will trade under the ticker symbol SKYD. The merger, valued between $110 billion and $111 billion on an enterprise basis, unites Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures under the Skydance brand.

David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz will serve as co-CEOs of the combined company. To address concerns regarding media concentration and political interference at CNN, Ellison agreed to produce 30 films annually and establish an independent oversight board for the news network. The new leadership team also includes Bari Weiss and Mark Thompson as news leads for CBS and CNN, respectively.

The deal closed after clearing significant regulatory and legal hurdles. The U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger in June, and European Union regulators granted approval subject to specific divestment concessions. A lawsuit led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta over antitrust concerns was settled on September 21.

In a final legal challenge, the Supreme Court of the United States denied an emergency request from five consumers to block the acquisition. This followed a September 30 decision by U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who ruled that the plaintiffs failed to provide evidence of harm. The merger follows a year of competition, including a failed $83 billion agreement between Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix.