Skydance Closes $110 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover, Begins Trading as SKYD on NYSE

Paramount Skydance closed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6, with WBD shareholders receiving $31.01666668 per share in cash, according to the company's closing announcement filed with the SEC. The combined company now operates as Skydance and its Class B shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the new symbol SKYD, while WBD shares ceased trading on Nasdaq. It brings CBS, HBO, CNN, DC, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Paramount+ and HBO Max under one roof.

David Ellison leads the company as chairman and CEO with Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO, and the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners hold all of the voting Class A stock, per the closing release. Reuters reported about $47 billion of Class B equity was funded, led by Larry Ellison, RedBird and LionTree with Saudi, Qatari and Abu Dhabi sovereign funds. The deal cleared competition authorities in nearly 70 jurisdictions; CBS News reported commitments to produce 30 films in each of the first two years, to keep the Paramount and Warner Bros. studio lots for at least five years, and to set up an editorial board for CNN and CBS.

The financial challenge is leverage. Reuters put the combined debt at about $80 billion, and management is targeting at least $6 billion in run-rate synergies within three years, which makes cost-cutting across overlapping departments, technology and real estate central to the plan.

What to watch: SKYD's early trading as a new listing, the pace of synergy delivery against the debt load, credit rating agency reactions, and whether the production pledges constrain cost cuts.