The Warner Bros.-Paramount merger has officially closed, creating a combined company called Skydance. David Ellison, son of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, now runs the merged studio and streaming operations. The deal brings together iconic brands like Warner Bros., HBO, and Paramount, though executives may eventually merge the streaming services into one offering.
Past buyers of Warner Bros. — AOL, AT&T, and Discovery — all struggled to make the acquisition work. Skydance is promising $6 billion in savings over three years, largely through combining operations and cutting costs. But as Peter Kafka noted on The Verge's Decoder podcast, there is no announced plan for new revenue. The company is shrinking before it grows, and it remains unclear how the Ellisons will succeed where others failed.