Paramount Skydance closed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, handing David Ellison control of the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, HBO, DC and CNN. The combined company now goes by Skydance, and its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange the same day. It starts life carrying net debt of nearly $80 billion.
The $110 billion figure includes debt. The Associated Press puts the equity purchase at $81 billion. Warner shareholders receive $31 per share in cash, plus a daily amount that accrued after Sept. 30 until closing.
How Ellison Got Here
Skydance finished its $8 billion purchase of Paramount in August 2025. Soon afterward, Paramount made an unsolicited offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Deadline. Warner instead signed with Netflix. On Dec. 8, 2025, Paramount answered with a hostile bid for the entire company, CNN and the cable networks included. The Warner board rejected it more than once and urged shareholders to do the same. Paramount sued Warner and CEO David Zaslav.
Netflix eventually walked away. It told investors, “The deal is no longer financially attractive.” The Hill reports that pushback from federal lawmakers and President Trump preceded the exit.
Paramount sealed a $110 billion all-cash agreement on Feb. 27. Warner shareholders approved it April 23. The Justice Department closed its investigation June 12 and imposed no conditions or divestitures.
Opposition came from elsewhere. Democratic attorneys general from 12 states, led by California’s Rob Bonta, sued in July. The Writers Guild of America filed its own suit July 14. A federal judge froze the closing July 20. Paramount settled in late September, and Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the consent decree Sept. 30, clearing the Oct. 6 date.
The Debt and the Stock
Debt drove the stock lower in the week before closing. On Oct. 1, Paramount priced $41.4 billion in senior secured notes and an $8.5 billion term loan to pay for the deal, with coupons running as high as 9.125%, according to Yahoo Finance. Shares fell nearly 10% that day and closed around $9. S&P Global had already cut the company’s rating to BB from BB+ on Sept. 24, citing higher leverage at close. Fitch dropped Paramount Skydance to junk status back in March.
According to 24/7 Wall St., the new debt dwarfs a market capitalization of about $10.8 billion, and the stock was down roughly 25% for the year as of Oct. 1. The same outlet reports that Larry Ellison pledged 36% of his Oracle shares as collateral for the deal financing.
Ellison told Warner staff the merger should produce more than $6 billion in cost savings, according to Variety. He said most of it would not come from layoffs, though he declined to give a job-cut number. Paramount cut about 2,000 jobs, roughly 10% of its workforce, within months of the Skydance merger last year.
What the Settlement Locks In
The five-year consent decree sets terms that limit how Skydance can cut. The company must release at least 30 films in U.S. theaters in each of the first two years and at least 32 a year for the next three. Qualifying films must stay in theaters 45 days and stay off subscription streaming for 90 days. A shortfall can cost $30 million per missing film, and a material violation left uncured could force the sale of Miramax.
Paramount and Warner cable networks must negotiate carriage deals separately for five years. Annual U.S. film and TV production spending must rise at least $300 million above the two companies’ combined 2025 level, and both studio lots must stay open. CBS News and CNN fall under a five-member editorial independence board. The Writers Guild settled for $17.5 million to its health fund plus up to $6 million in legal fees.
Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief, becomes co-CEO and runs day-to-day operations and integration. Ellison stays chairman and CEO. At CBS News, Ellison already installed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief.
What It Means for Fans
DC Studios, run by James Gunn and Peter Safran, and the Harry Potter films now sit under the same roof as Star Trek and Top Gun. HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto TV and Discovery+ share one owner. Ellison told Warner staff he wanted to talk with both streaming teams before deciding what a merged service looks like, so no combination has been announced.
The decree blocks the cheapest route to paying down debt, which is shrinking theatrical output and pushing everything to streaming. That leaves cost cuts as the main lever, and Ellison has promised more than $6 billion of them. Netflix and Disney now face a larger rival that cannot easily cut its way out of its own balance sheet.
With a 30-film annual floor, a $30 million penalty for each miss and interest due on $41.4 billion in new notes, which side of the house gives first: the DC and Harry Potter slate from Warner, or the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible slate from Paramount?
This sounds like good news, but with the demand of 25-32 movies a year, how will that work?
I'd like to see new Star Trek and old favorites, but it's doubtful they'll be worth watching.
The best of the new Kurtzman stuff was SNW, and it's last season was shyte.