LOS ANGELES — A new era in Hollywood is set to begin with a new media conglomerate called Skydance.
David Ellison's long-anticipated — and long-feared — deal to consolidate Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to close Tuesday. The $111 billion merger faced months of public protests, but ultimately passed legal and regulatory challenges in the U.S. and in Europe.
Ellison will control the new media empire with help from his billionaire father Larry Ellison and investors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. The company, Skydance, combines two legendary film studios, both more than 100 years old: Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.
"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 wrote in a post on X last week, with a video unveiling Skydance. "What was peak is now just the beginning," the video announcer said.
Ellison and co. will also control the two companies' streaming services, including Paramount+ and HBO Max. They will also get MTV, Comedy Central, and the Food Network. And they will control two huge news outlets: CNN and CBS News.
"This deal is basically, it's pro-competitive, pro-consumer, it's good for the overall creative economy," Ellison told CNBC in March, after having outbid Netflix. "We now have a library of 15,000 films, everything from Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Mission Impossible, Top Gun, and The Godfather under one roof."
Among the television shows Skydance gets to distribute are Ted Lasso, The Daily Show, the Star Trek franchise, and all those Looney Tunes cartoons.
Ellison already announced his co-CEO will be Ynon Kreiz, the former head of Mattel.
But Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, the duo that headed Warner Bros. Pictures, are now out of the picture. Just last year at the Oscars, they celebrated awards for their films Sinners and One Battle After Another.
The merger faced many public fights with people who work in the entertainment and news industries; the Writers Guild of America and 12 state attorneys general tried unsuccessfully to block the merger with lawsuits.
As part of the settlement with the states, Ellison agreed that the combined studios will make 30 films a year for the next few years. But critics remain skeptical.
Many viewers and journalists also worry about what might happen to CNN, with David and Larry Ellison being allies to President Trump.
"We're concerned about the Ellison's corrupting CNN," attorney Jessica Gonzalez told NPR. She's co-CEO of the nonprofit media advocacy organization Free Press, which helped organize the Block the Merger Coalition. (That's not to be confused with the media company Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss, the head of CBS News.)
"We're concerned about what the Ellisons have already done since taking over Paramount and CBS. They are willing to use their money and power to censor the news, to tear down stories that they or the president don't like," Gonzalez said. "We deserve better than billionaire oligarchs controlling our media system."
To get the deal past a federal judge in the antitrust lawsuit, Ellison promised to set up an independent oversight board to protect CNN from political interference. Skydance says the current head of CNN, Mark Thompson, will remain. Bari Weiss will continue to head CBS News.
People against the deal predict viewers could soon have to pay more for streaming services, they could have fewer choices and there may be less risky films and TV shows. And they say layoffs are inevitable.
Ellison comes into this with a huge amount of debt. Beyond the $111 billion price tag, he promised to pay Warner Bros. shareholders $7 million starting October first until the deal closes.
For now, workers at both companies will be starting the day a bit unsure about their future at Skydance.
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