Paramount-WBD to become Skydance as deal nears close

When Paramount Skydance ↗ 105.79% completes its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery ↗ 0.03%, the combined company will be called Skydance Corporation. Chairman and CEO David Ellison announced the name ahead of a closing scheduled for Tuesday, October 6, subject to customary conditions. Its Class B shares will move from the Nasdaq ↗ 2.06% to the New York Stock Exchange and trade under the ticker SKYD instead of PSKY.broadbandtvnews+2

Skydance will be the corporate parent only. Paramount and Warner Bros. will continue as studio brands, alongside CBS, CNN, HBO, MTV and Discovery. The streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max will also sit under the same company.bestmediainfo+1

Why Ellison picked the name

Ellison made the announcement in a post on X late last week, according to TV Technology. "We never wanted a new corporate identity to diminish, alter or overshadow either one," he wrote. He said the company wanted a name "that would give the combined company an identity of its own while allowing Paramount and Warner Bros. — and all our extraordinary brands — to remain in the spotlight".tvtechnology+1

"Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history – we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine," Ellison said. He described Skydance as "a creative-first home for bold, quality storytelling".blooloop

Skydance is the production company Ellison founded in 2006. He added its name to Paramount when he took control of that company in 2025.advanced-television

The deal

Paramount agreed in February to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for \$31 per share in cash. That values WBD at about \$81 billion in equity and \$110 billion including debt. The deal has received the regulatory approvals required in nearly 70 jurisdictions. Last week, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved a settlement with a group of state attorneys general. She called it a "reasonable factual and legal resolution". Paramount expects more than \$6 billion in synergies from the merger.arbiterz+2

Former Mattel ↗ 5.11% CEO Ynon Kreiz joined Paramount on October 5 and will become co-CEO once the deal closes. He will run day-to-day operations and the integration of the two companies. Ellison will keep responsibility for strategy, creative direction, technology and capital allocation.bestmediainfo

Backlash in Hollywood

Some industry figures criticized the name. Page Six quoted a producer with ties to both studios who called it "a gut punch" and "painful." A Paramount investor told the outlet, "Skydance doesn't resonate with anyone." One Warner Bros. executive compared the move to David Zaslav's 2023 decision to rename HBO Max as simply "Max," which was later reversed.pagesix

Opposition to the merger itself also continues. Actor Mark Ruffalo wrote on X that the deal "will stifle creativity, weaken free speech, and cost people their jobs". The new company also has an immediate box-office problem: Warner Bros.' Tom Cruise film "Digger" grossed about \$8 million domestically in its opening weekend.tvtechnology