Paramount Completes Its Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Creating a New Media Giant

A deal bringing studios, platforms, and networks together

Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, 2026, in a deal valued at around $110 billion. The transaction brings together two major Hollywood studios and combines their catalogs, channels, and streaming services under one group.

The resulting company brings together brands such as Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, HBO, CBS, and CNN, as well as platforms such as HBO Max and Paramount+. Its portfolio also includes content and franchises such as Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Mission: Impossible, Game of Thrones, and Top Gun, along with CBS and TNT sports businesses.

Shares in the new company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SKYD. Warner Bros. Discovery shares ceased trading on Nasdaq after the transaction was completed.

New leadership and control of the company

David Ellison, Skydance’s chairman and chief executive officer, will lead the group. Ynon Kreiz, former CEO of Mattel, will serve as co-CEO and oversee the integration. According to information published about the ownership structure, the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners control the Class A shares, which carry 100% of the voting rights.

The change in ownership also means the departure of several Warner Bros. Discovery executives, including its CEO, David Zaslav, and chief financial officer, Gunnar Wiedenfels. Those continuing in prominent positions include Casey Bloys, who heads HBO; Mark Thompson, at CNN; and DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. Bari Weiss will remain editor-in-chief of CBS News.

The financing described for the deal includes $47 billion in new capital, led by the Ellison family and RedBird alongside other investors, and debt involving Bank of America, Citigroup, and Apollo. These components are part of the transaction’s financial structure; they are not equivalent to the announced total value of the acquisition.

Integration, the main business challenge

The merger expands the group’s scale in film, television, news, sports, and digital distribution. RTVE puts its annual revenue at close to $70 billion and says the company aims to achieve up to $6 billion in synergies over the coming years. That figure is an expectation, not savings already achieved.

For the audiovisual sector, the deal is part of a period of consolidation: companies are seeking to combine content and distribution channels in a market transformed by streaming and competition from technology platforms. The new structure concentrates assets with a wide reach, but completing the acquisition does not by itself determine how the platforms, workforces, or content offerings will be reorganized. Those effects will depend on management decisions and the integration process.

Regulatory commitments in the United States

The acquisition was completed after months of antitrust litigation. A group of state attorneys general opposed the deal, arguing that the combined company would account for nearly 27% of the theatrical distribution market and more than 30% of the major theatrical releases segment, as well as increase concentration in basic cable television networks. Those figures reflect the plaintiffs’ arguments, not a general conclusion about all audiovisual markets.

According to RTVE, a federal judge in California approved an agreement that cleared the last major legal hurdle. The regulatory conditions described include releasing at least 30 films a year in theaters and investing $1.5 billion in film production in the United States over five years. The new company will also have to create a board to protect the editorial independence of CBS News and CNN.

These commitments define part of the scope of the approval in the United States. They do not eliminate uncertainty about carrying out the integration or predict its commercial results: achieving the planned synergies and the performance of the various businesses remain goals and open questions.