David Ellison’s Skydance closed its Paramount-Warner Bros. transaction on 6 October 2026, placing CNN, CBS News, HBO, Warner Bros. and Paramount within a single corporate structure.
The acquisition joins two major film studios, two global streaming services, CBS, HBO and both companies’ cable networks. Skydance now owns CNN and CBS News, Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, HBO and Paramount+, alongside cable networks, live sports and entertainment franchises.
The deal was valued at about US$110 billion including debt. It creates a company with nearly $70 billion in revenue and projected debt north of $80 billion after the acquisition is financed.
Employees were told in a Tuesday memo from Ellison and co-chief executive Ynon Kreiz that combining the businesses would bring change, including difficult decisions affecting the workforce. Skydance expects to cut at least $6 billion in costs within three years through technology, integration and procurement, marketing and real-estate savings, and layoffs.
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The company has also said it will use AI to broaden what its creative staff can imagine and make its businesses more productive.
Kreiz, the former Mattel chief, joined Skydance as co-CEO on 5 October. Ellison is chairman and chief executive, while CNN chief Mark Thompson and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss remain in their posts and ultimately report to him.
Ellison has denied interfering with coverage at CNN and CBS News. The merger settlement requires an editorial independence board for the two news organisations, although the available terms do not establish whether that board will have binding authority over news decisions.
The deal reached its final regulatory hurdle on 30 September, when a federal judge approved an antitrust settlement with a coalition of 12 states that had sued to block the merger. The merger was described in that proceeding as a $111 billion transaction. The settlement also requires a multiyear guarantee on movie production and theatrical releases.
Skydance now controls franchises including Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Yellowstone, Mission: Impossible and Top Gun. It also controls CBS, CNN, MTV and HBO Max. The company has promised at least 30 high profile theatrical films and more than 180 new television shows and series in the coming years.
The financing gives outside investors a substantial stake in the new group. Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will own 38.5% through $24 billion in commitments. Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder and David Ellison’s father, personally guaranteed $46.7 billion in equity financing.
President Donald Trump publicly praised the merger. The transaction arrives in an industry where the ownership of news and entertainment has increasingly converged. In 2004, media critic Ben Bagdikian warned that five corporations had amassed “more communications power than was exercised by any despot or dictatorship in history”.
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