The company formed by the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger will be called Skydance. David Ellison announced the name Friday in a post on X, four days before the deal is scheduled to close on October 6. The new stock will trade under the ticker SKYD.
Paramount and Warner Bros. both stay on as studio brands under that parent. Ellison wrote that he did not want a new corporate identity to “diminish, alter or overshadow either one,” so the corporate name borrows from neither studio. His post came with a video montage that ran through DC, HBO Max, Nickelodeon, CBS, Paramount+ and CNN as brands sitting under Skydance.
The name is Ellison’s own. He founded Skydance Productions in 2006, renamed it Skydance Media in 2020, and used it to buy Paramount Global in August 2025. That purchase created Paramount Skydance Corporation, the company now buying Warner Bros. Discovery. Until Friday, the merged company had no official name, and nicknames like “WarnaMount” and “ParaBros” filled the gap. The Discovery name, which has been on a publicly traded company since 2008, drops out of the corporate title.
The Settlement Already Protects Both Studios
Keeping the two studios is also a condition of the deal going through. Twelve state attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta, sued to block the merger on antitrust grounds. The two sides settled on September 21, and Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the consent decree on Wednesday. Quartz reports that under its terms the combined company cannot sell or close the Paramount or Warner Bros. studios.
The decree sets a floor for theatrical releases as well. Skydance has to put at least 30 films a year into U.S. theaters for the first two years and 32 a year in years three through five, each with a theatrical window of at least 45 days. Four of those films each year have to be independent, though TheWrap points out that the decree counts anything based on an original screenplay, or anything Paramount co-produces, as independent. Domestic production spending has to run at least $300 million a year above 2025 levels.
The current slate clears that floor. Rentrak data cited by CNBC shows the two studios releasing 35 films in 2027, the most from any one studio since at least 2000.
The settlement did not include any divestitures, which Bonta had previously said he wanted. The Block the Merger coalition argued in an amicus brief that the agreement cannot be enforced, and Sen. Cory Booker asked the court to order an independent public-interest review before signing off. Martínez-Olguín wrote that those objections did not amount to legal grounds for rejecting a negotiated settlement.
Who Runs Skydance
Ellison stays on as chairman and CEO, in charge of strategy, creative and technology. Ynon Kreiz, who ran Mattel for the past eight years, joins on October 5 as co-CEO and will handle day-to-day operations and the integration of the two companies.
HBO chief Casey Bloys will run both Paramount+ and HBO Max. Paramount streaming head Cindy Holland is leaving. Deadline reports that Ellison wants Mark Thompson to remain CEO of CNN after the close.
What Skydance Owns on Day One
Ellison put the combined film library at about 15,000 titles in a CNBC interview in March. Harry Potter, the DC Universe and Mission: Impossible now share a parent company with Star Trek and the Nickelodeon catalog. Ellison also said Paramount+ and HBO Max together have more than 200 million subscribers.
Paramount is paying $31 a share in cash, which values Warner Bros. Discovery at $110 billion including debt. In that same March interview, CNBC put the combined company’s debt at $79 billion and noted that Fitch had downgraded Paramount to junk status.
Sources: CNBC, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap, Quartz, Variety, CNN, NBC News
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