Paramount Completes Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover, Creating Media Giant Skydance

The acquisition followed a yearlong process that drew scrutiny across Hollywood, Wall Street and Washington, according to Axios. in.gr reported that completion came a year after Paramount Skydance first submitted its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery.

There was also a bidding contest with Netflix, according to Telegraaf. The prize was a business combining two of Hollywood's five largest film studios and franchises including Harry Potter and Mission Impossible, as Bloomberg reported.

On October 6, Paramount completed the acquisition and the combined company took the name Skydance, according to NDTV Top Stories. Its holdings include Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, CBS News, CNN, HBO and CBS.

The reported price is not consistent across the coverage. Axios put it at $110 billion, CBC News reported $81 billion US, and in.gr described a $111 billion merger. The supplied reports do not explain those differences.

Skydance began trading on Wall Street on October 6, Al Jazeera reported. David Ellison also addressed employees at the first companywide town hall, according to Business Insider.

On October 7, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Ellison again said he planned to combine HBO Max and Paramount+, while acknowledging that building the technology would take time. Ars Technica had reported a broader plan to unify HBO Max, Paramount+ and Discovery+ into a single service.

The same day, newly appointed Motion Picture Group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein outlined plans for the studios. Paramount and Warner Bros. would each build and release their own films, according to Variety Movies.

Employees also received a memo warning of upcoming layoffs to support integration, Times of India reported on October 7. Meanwhile, Forbes reported that Skydance shares were down 8% one day after their stock exchange debut.

The acquisition is complete, but combining the businesses is still underway. The Next Web reported that the renamed company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD. The streaming merger remains a longer-term plan rather than a completed change, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The deal also places CNN and CBS News under the same owner. Al Jazeera reported concerns about editorial independence tied to the chairman's family connections to Trump and Israel. Those are concerns raised about the new ownership, not evidence in the supplied coverage of specific editorial interference.

The next practical question is when the streaming services will become one product. The Hollywood Reporter says the technical work will take time; the supplied coverage gives no firm launch date, subscription price or details of how existing accounts will change.

The scale and timing of job cuts also remain unclear in the supplied reports. Alongside that restructuring, the commitment that both studios will build and release their own films, reported by Variety Movies, will be a concrete point to track as integration proceeds.