Paramount Skydance Completes $110 Billion Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery

Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, 2026, ending one of the largest and most contested takeover battles in the history of the entertainment industry, according to an announcement published on Skydance's corporate website.

The deal valued Warner Bros. Discovery shares at $31.02 per share in cash, a figure confirmed in Skydance's official statement and corroborated by Yahoo Finance's report on the closing. Enterprise value for the transaction has been put at roughly $110 billion, per Wikipedia's summary of the deal and multiple financial filings referenced in that entry.

How the Deal Came Together

According to Wikipedia's account of the acquisition, David Ellison first proposed a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery to then-chief executive David Zaslav in September 2025. Netflix later emerged as the leading bidder on December 5, 2025, before withdrawing on February 26, 2026, which cleared the way for Paramount Skydance's offer to become the winning bid.

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved the transaction on April 23, 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal on June 12, 2026, followed by the European Commission on July 22 and the United Kingdom's competition authority on August 6, alongside clearances in Australia, Mexico and more than 60 other jurisdictions, Wikipedia's entry states.

Legal Challenges and the State Settlement

The merger was not without resistance. California and eleven other states filed an antitrust lawsuit on July 13, 2026, and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the deal on July 20, according to Wikipedia's summary. NBC News reported that a settlement with the coalition of states removed the main legal obstacle to closing.

Yahoo Finance reported that the settlement with roughly a dozen states, including California, requires the combined company to release at least 30 films in theaters annually, with a $30 million penalty for each film short of that target. The same settlement includes a provision for a potential forced sale of Warner Bros.' 49% stake in Miramax if the target is not met. Wikipedia's entry adds that a court approved a consent decree on September 30, 2026, days after the state settlement was reached on September 21.

Yahoo Finance also reported that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied a last-minute effort to halt the transaction, allowing the closing to proceed on October 6.

What the Combined Company Looks Like

The merged business has been renamed Skydance Corporation and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "SKYD" the day the deal closed, Yahoo Finance reported; the stock closed its first session at $9.53 per share. David Ellison leads the new company as chairman and CEO, with Ynon Kreiz — a former chief executive of Mattel — serving as co-CEO overseeing day-to-day integration, according to both the Skydance press release and NBC News.

Skydance's own announcement describes the combined company as bringing together two major film studios, two global streaming services with a combined subscriber base described as exceeding 200 million, the CBS and HBO television networks, the CNN and CBS News operations, and sports properties including CBS Sports and TNT Sports. Reported franchises in the combined library include Top Gun, Harry Potter, White Lotus and SpongeBob SquarePants.

NBC News reported that Mark Thompson will continue leading CNN and Bari Weiss remains editor in chief of CBS News following the merger. Yahoo Finance reported that the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services are intended to unify into a single service over time, without a stated date.

Financial Targets and Risks

Skydance's press release states a target of at least $6 billion in run-rate cost synergies within three years, plans for more than 30 theatrical films and more than 180 television shows annually, roughly $70 billion in combined revenue, and a goal of more than $10 billion in free cash flow by 2030, with a net leverage target of 3.0 times earnings by the end of 2029. NBC News reported the merger leaves the combined company with roughly $80 billion in debt and that planned cost savings are expected to come largely from "non-labor sources," though job cuts across the industry are still anticipated.