Paramount sealed its $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery takeover on Tuesday, rebranding as Skydance after settling antitrust fights with state attorneys general.
CBS News reported that Paramount Skydance completed the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and united the companies under the new Skydance name.
David Ellison, who orchestrated the merger, will lead the combined company with co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief. Warner Bros. shareholders are set to receive a cash equivalent of roughly $31 per share.
The close ends months of legal resistance. A coalition of 12 state attorneys general sued in July to block the deal on antitrust grounds. The Writers Guild of America filed a separate suit. Paramount settled with the states, and the guild then agreed to settle as well.
Those settlements cleared the final path for a media giant that now houses CBS News, CNN, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TBS, TNT, Paramount+, and HBO Max under one roof.
In a statement from Skydance, Ellison framed the moment in sweeping terms.
"Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,"
Ellison and Kreiz told employees the merger creates a stronger competitor with the scale to take on the biggest players in the industry. They also warned that integration will not be painless.
"Integrating two companies will bring change, including difficult decisions that affect our workforce,"
The company is targeting $6 billion in cost savings. That figure lands alongside the leadership’s own admission that jobs will be on the line as the two firms combine operations, studios, and streaming platforms.
The deal’s earlier stretch faced mounting legal and financial pressure before the settlements locked in the finish.
To resolve the antitrust suits, Paramount accepted concrete operating limits. It pledged to produce 30 films in each of the first two years after the merger. It is also barred from selling or closing the Paramount or Warner Bros. studio lots in Los Angeles for at least five years.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office highlighted another concession tied to the news side of the empire. Paramount agreed to establish an editorial board meant to help CNN and CBS maintain editorial independence.
"help CNN and CBS maintain editorial independence,"
That board language comes after the same California office helped shape the settlement track that cleared the path for the larger takeover.
Government lawyers from a dozen states and a major Hollywood guild used litigation to set production minimums, lock studio real estate in place, and insert an oversight structure into two national news brands. Private shareholders still got their cash-out. Executives still got their scale. Taxpayers and viewers now watch whether the promised independence holds once the cost-cutting begins.
The combined Skydance roster stretches from prestige film and streaming libraries to cable entertainment and two of the country’s most visible news operations. CBS News and CNN sit inside the same corporate structure for the first time, joined by comedy, kids, and general entertainment channels that once competed more directly for carriage and attention.
Ellison and Kreiz told staff the point of the combination is competitive strength. In their employee email they described the result as a “stronger competitor, one with the scale to take on the biggest players in our industry.”
Talent and outside voices have already begun reacting to the new ownership map. Coverage of post-clearance fallout has included high-profile figures signaling exits and objections as the corporate lines redraw.
One strand of that reaction followed vows to leave CNN once the merger picture solidified.
Another captured celebrity pushback after a federal judge allowed the transaction to move forward, including sharp criticism of the $110 billion takeover itself.
Those disputes sit against a longer Hollywood and political backdrop in which governors, actors, and deal-makers have mixed freely while the regulatory fight played out, including well-publicized dinners that kept the merger in the same conversation as celebrity and state politics.
The condemnation of the takeover underscored how quickly cultural figures moved from courtroom watching to public protest once the path looked clear.
Skydance now carries two competing pressures at once. Leadership is openly preparing “difficult decisions” on staffing to chase $6 billion in savings. At the same time, the settlement requires a steady film output of 30 titles a year for the first two years and keeps the Los Angeles studio lots open and unsold for at least five.
That mix leaves less room for a quiet, purely financial integration. The company must cut costs while hitting volume targets written into a legal deal with state attorneys general. Studio real estate that might once have been sold or consolidated is frozen by agreement. Newsrooms that once answered to separate corporate parents now share an ownership umbrella and a newly promised editorial board.
Kreiz brings an operating background from Mattel. Ellison brings the deal itself. Together they inherit the practical work of merging payrolls, pipelines, and brands without breaking the settlement terms that finally let the $110 billion close occur on Tuesday.
Political theater around the fight never fully left the stage. Even as lawyers negotiated, California’s governor kept up the Hollywood social circuit that often blurs into deal season, including a Malibu dinner with top actors while the merger battle was still hot.
None of that social calendar changed the core mechanics. Shareholders receive their roughly $31-per-share cash equivalent. The new Skydance name goes on the door. The film quota, the lot restrictions, the editorial board, and the $6 billion savings target now belong to the same leadership team.
Ellison called the day historic for Skydance and for the industry. The settlement paperwork shows what historic required: production floor commitments, a multi-year ban on closing or selling major Los Angeles lots, and a board structure sold as protection for CNN and CBS independence.
State attorneys general and the Writers Guild used antitrust claims to shape those terms before standing down. The companies used the settlements to finish a transaction that creates one of the largest entertainment and news combinations in the country. Workers have already been told that difficult decisions are coming. Viewers have been told an editorial board will help safeguard two newsrooms now housed together.
The test is no longer whether the deal can close. It closed on Tuesday. The test is whether a $6 billion cost-cutting program, a mandated film slate, locked studio lots, and a new editorial board can coexist without the “independence” promise becoming another corporate press line.
Big media got its scale. State power got its concessions. Ordinary viewers and employees will live with the results.
