One owner, two newsrooms
Paramount Skydance completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, closing a deal that took more than a year of bidding and regulatory fights. The combined company is now called Skydance and is led by chief executive David Ellison. It puts CBS News and CNN, HBO Max and Paramount+, and the Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures studios under one roof.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied a last-minute attempt to halt the closing. A California judge approved a settlement with California and 11 other states that had sued on antitrust grounds and raised concerns about the journalistic independence of CNN. Under the settlement, the combined company must release at least 30 films in theatres each year and set up an editorial board to oversee CNN and CBS News.
What changes inside the company
Paramount's chief financial officer, Dennis Cinelli, keeps the same role at Skydance. Casey Bloys, who ran HBO, becomes chief content officer. CBS Sports chief David Berson takes over the combined sports operation as Warner Bros. Discovery's top sports executive, Luis Silberwasser, exits. Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav leaves with a payout of roughly $886.8 million. Leadership at CNN stays in place for now.
Why it matters for viewers and rivals
The deal hands two of Hollywood's oldest studios and two of America's biggest newsrooms to a single owner, just as streaming spending slows and cinema attendance stays below pre-2020 levels. The 30-film commitment is a rare written promise about theatrical releases, and states can fine the company if it falls short.
Attention now turns to the combined library, which includes Mission: Impossible, Harry Potter, DC Comics and Top Gun, and to how quickly Skydance cuts overlapping costs. Netflix, Disney and Amazon will watch whether a larger, leaner studio changes how much money goes into films and shows over the next two years.