Paramount Skydance completes $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, rebrands as Skydance

Paramount Skydance on Tuesday closed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, combining the studios behind "The Godfather" and "Harry Potter" into a media company rebranded as Skydance. Warner Bros. shareholders will receive cash equivalent to roughly $31 per share, the company said. The merger unites CBS News and CNN, cable networks including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TBS and TNT, and streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max. CEO David Ellison, who orchestrated the deal, will lead the company with co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, formerly Mattel's CEO. The executives said the combination creates a "stronger competitor" and targets $6 billion in cost savings, which they acknowledged will bring "difficult decisions that affect our workforce." The deal closed after Paramount settled a July antitrust lawsuit from 12 state attorneys general and a separate Writers Guild of America suit. Under the agreement, Paramount pledged to produce 30 films annually for two years, keep its Los Angeles studio lots open for five years and establish an editorial board to preserve CNN and CBS editorial independence.