The $110 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery closed on Oct. 6, creating a new media company called Skydance under CEO David Ellison. All three sources report that Ellison, who previously merged his Skydance Media with Paramount, called the completion a 'historic day' for the industry.
All three outlets agree that HBO Max and Paramount+ will eventually be combined into a single streaming service, though no timeline or name has been announced. The Verge reports that HBO CEO Casey Bloys will oversee the merged platform, which Ellison has said could bring together more than 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers and a catalog including Yellowstone, House of the Dragon, and The White Lotus.
Skydance begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD, with annual revenue of nearly $70 billion, according to Engadget and TechCrunch. The two outlets differ on context: Engadget emphasizes that the mega-merger carries $80 billion in debt, while TechCrunch notes that the deal closed after settlements with U.S. states and a Hollywood writers' union cleared legal hurdles, and that Paramount won a bidding war against Netflix.