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The takeover closed on October 6, creating the combined company Skydance.
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HBO Max and Paramount+ will eventually become one streaming service.
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Management targets at least $6 billion in annual savings within three years.
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CNN and CBS News retain separate leaders under their new owner.
October 07, (THEWILL) – Paramount Skydance has completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, putting the studios behind Mission: Impossible and Harry Potter, alongside CNN, CBS and HBO, under one owner.
The transaction closed on Tuesday, October 6, according to a regulatory filing. Warner Bros. Discovery became a wholly owned subsidiary of the combined business, now called Skydance Corporation, with its shareholders receiving approximately $31.02 per share in cash.
David Ellison, Skydance’s chairman and chief executive, presented the acquisition as a response to years of disruption by streaming competitors.
“They didn’t transform, and they held on to the past for too long”, he said of established media companies at Tuesday’s press conference, Reuters reported.
A Streaming Merger With Heavy Debt Bill
HBO Max and Paramount+ are now part of the same group. Skydance says its streaming products will “unify into a single service over time”, although its announcement provides neither a launch date nor a subscription price.
Ellison described the ambition as creating “a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories”.
That ambition comes with a substantial debt burden. Associated Press puts the combined company’s estimated net debt at about $80 billion. It reports an acquisition price of approximately $81 billion excluding debt, explaining why that figure is lower than the headline transaction valuation.
Alongside Ellison, co-CEO Ynon Kreiz will oversee daily operations and integration. Management is targeting at least $6 billion in annual savings within three years, with technology, procurement, marketing and property among the areas identified for savings. Those gains remain projections.
Control is concentrated despite the transaction’s range of financial backers. The Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners hold all the combined company’s voting shares, according to Skydance. Its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under SKYD on Tuesday.
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Newsroom Safeguards And Cinema Commitments
Ownership of both CNN and CBS News has drawn particular scrutiny. CNN’s Mark Thompson and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will retain their respective leadership roles, reporting separately to Ellison and Kreiz.
Ellison defended the arrangement on Tuesday.
“And we believe in complete editorial independence”, he said, according to The Guardian.
A settlement with US states that challenged the merger requires Skydance to establish a News Editorial Independence Board within 180 days, adding a formal oversight obligation to that assurance.
Meanwhile, Paramount and Warner Bros will retain their separate studio identities. Skydance also says it will continue commissioning independent producers and licensing its content to other distributors.
Cinema operators secured specific commitments through the settlement. The studios must release at least 30 films annually for the first two years, rising to 32 annually for the following three. Skydance says its theatrical releases will each have a minimum 45-day cinema window before moving beyond that exclusive run.
Joy Onuorah is a business journalist and brand communications specialist covering financial markets, artificial intelligence, digital economy, and the ideas reshaping business across Africa and the global market. Beyond her reporting for TheWill, Joy uses brand strategy, storytelling, copywriting, and high-value SEO to help brands build lasting market authority.
