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After a year of corporate drama, plenty of legal friction, and several points of potential collapse, Skydance Corp. is officially born.
CBS Sports parent company Paramount closed its much-discussed, $110 billion acquisition of TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, giving rise to the newly combined Skydance in a company that is set to reshape much of sports media, as well as Hollywood.
With the closing, Skydance co-CEO and chair David Ellison has prevailed in one of the most dramatic media sagas in U.S. history.
“Getting here has been quite a journey. Over the past year and beyond, it has taken hard work, perseverance, and commitment, with many challenges along the way—but we did it!” Ellison and Skydance co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a company memo sent Tuesday to employees. “Bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery together fulfills a vision that began with Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount: to build the next-generation media and entertainment company, powered by creativity and technology.”
Long Road
The closing of the deal arrived nearly a year to the day after WBD put itself up for sale. Among the key developments since October 2025:
- Streaming giant Netflix originally struck an $82.7 billion deal to acquire WBD’s streaming and studios businesses, a structure that would have left the rest of the assets, including TNT Sports, to continue separately.
- Ellison and Paramount mounted an effort to outbid Netflix’s deal and ultimately struck their own agreement to buy all of WBD.
- Paramount detailed a plan to combine its own Paramount+ and WBD’s HBO Max into a single streaming service.
- The U.S. Department of Justice signed off on the deal, with Ellison maintaining a close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.
- A dozen blue-leaning states, led by California, challenged the deal on antitrust grounds, and then agreed to a trial schedule that would have pushed the case to March 2027.
- Weighed down in part by Ellison’s threat to relocate Paramount out of California, the states reached a settlement with the company last month that included no resale of acquired WBD assets.
- Ellison chose the Skydance name as its new identity for the combined company, and appointed Kreiz, formerly the CEO of Mattel, as co-CEO.
With the closing of the deal, RedBird Capital Partners also invested an additional $4 billion in the company, bringing its total investment in Skydance to about $6 billion. Ellison’s father, billionaire Larry Ellison, is also financially backing the merger, as are LionTree and sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
“By applying our owner-operator model to Paramount and WBD’s unmatched portfolio of iconic franchises, premium original programming, and live sports rights, we can protect that legacy while building for a media landscape that’s undergoing transformational change,” said RedBird managing partner and Skydance board director Gerry Cardinale.
What’s Next
Skydance’s sports operations are now a major industry force with touchpoints in every major pro sport and league, with the exception of the NBA, and that breadth of rights is perhaps rivaled by only ESPN.
David Berson, previously CBS Sports CEO, will lead Skydance Sports, with the move not a surprise given that Berson’s prior boss, CBS president and CEO George Cheeks, is now co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance TV. Berson’s sports counterpart at WBD, Luis Silberwasser, is leaving the company.
That will likely be just the start of widespread layoffs within Skydance, and not just within sports, as duplication of roles between the two companies is extensive. Skydance also begins its new corporate life with about $80 billion in debt, and investors will be eager to see progress in lowering that number.
Ellison and Kreiz acknowledged that in the company memo.
“Integrating two companies will bring change, including difficult decisions that affect our workforce,” the pair wrote. “We are committed to handling this process thoughtfully and respectfully.”
Already, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Skydance’s long-term debt to BB from BB+.
“The downgrade reflects materially higher leverage after the acquisition and significant execution and integration risks,” Fitch said regarding its new rating. “It also reflects uncertainty about the company’s ability to achieve its stated synergies, which are material to its deleveraging target. The combined company faces structural pressures on linear revenues, streaming competition, and hit-driven content risk.”
Because the closing happened after Sept. 30, Paramount is paying WBD investors $41.9 million in ticking fees. Had the antitrust fight with the states continued, those fees would have run into the billions.
Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, in which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the primary investor in Front Office Sports.
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