Mattel's Ynon Kreiz Named Co-CEO of Skydance Media Empire

Ynon Kreiz, the outgoing CEO of Mattel, will serve as co-CEO of the combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery — to be named simply Skydance — when the roughly $110 billion merger closes on Tuesday.

The appointment answers a governance question that has shadowed David Ellison's aggressive pursuit of legacy media assets: the tech executive and son of billionaire Larry Ellison can buy Hollywood, but can he run it? Ellison, 42, spent two years fighting to build his media empire. Not even 18 months ago, he ran film production company Skydance with a limited portfolio of hits, chiefly the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible franchise and "Top Gun: Maverick."

By August 2025, Ellison closed an acquisition of Paramount worth around $8 billion. Roughly a month later, he launched his campaign for Warner Bros. Discovery, triggering a back-and-forth bidding war that ended in a deal worth roughly $110 billion on an enterprise basis, merging two of Hollywood's biggest media companies.

The new entity unites the storied film studios of Paramount and Warner Bros.; the CBS broadcast network; a sprawling pay-TV portfolio that includes CNN, TNT, MTV and BET; and the streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max.

Kreiz joins Paramount Skydance on Monday and becomes co-CEO on Tuesday upon closing. Ellison will focus on long-term strategy, creative vision, technology and capital allocation, while Kreiz takes responsibility for day-to-day management and integration of the combined businesses, the company said.

Kreiz is a 30-year veteran of the media industry, arguably best known for ushering "Barbie" to the big screen in 2023. He has earned a reputation as a turnaround man.

"We view the appointment of Ynon Kreiz positively, as his operating experience and brand/IP focus uniquely position him to help lead the integration of Paramount Skydance and WBD and build the combined business into a best-in-class content and IP platform," said Matthew Condon, analyst at Citizens Bank, in a research note published this week.

Morningstar is more guarded. "Kreiz has extensive experience in media and entertainment from before his time at Mattel," senior equity analyst Matthew Dolgin wrote. "However, we don't necessarily think he is the best conceivable choice to handle this task."

"He undoubtedly is an experienced hand who fills a void that had been present, leaving the firm better positioned with him, in our view, than it was without him," Dolgin wrote. "Though his title is co-CEO, we view Kreiz as a chief operating officer."

The Mattel Turnaround

Before his eight-year stint as Mattel CEO, Kreiz was chief executive and chairman of Maker Studios, sold to The Walt Disney Co. in 2014. He earlier served as chairman and CEO of Endemol Group, one of the world's largest independent television production companies, and co-founded Fox Kids Group Europe, acquired by Disney in 2002.

"It's an excellent choice for Paramount," Eric Handler, managing director and senior media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital Partners, told CNBC.

When Kreiz took the helm at Mattel in 2018, he was the fourth CEO in four years. The company's Fisher-Price, Barbie and American Girl brands were struggling, and Mattel was reeling from the recent bankruptcy of Toys R Us.

"Mattel had like a four-year revenue downturn, gone from being quite profitable to losing money, and he turned that around in like two years," Handler said.

Kreiz restructured Mattel's supply chain, reduced the number of toys produced, closed several manufacturing facilities and cut the workforce by 2,200 employees. He prioritized free cash flow and deleveraging the balance sheet.

"They did a great job of cutting like $1 billion worth of cost right out of the gate, becoming more flexible, quicker to market," said Gerrick Johnson, equity research analyst at Seaport Research Partners.

The Film Bet

One of Kreiz's first major initiatives at Mattel was launching an in-house film division, using the box office as a catalyst for toy sales. The strategy delivered "Barbie," directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, which generated more than $1.4 billion at the global box office and revitalized the Barbie brand.

Yet most of the film's revenue went to Warner Bros. and theatrical partners. Mattel reported a $150 million revenue boost in fiscal 2023, the year of release.

"You can't argue that Barbie wasn't anything but a tremendous success," Johnson said. "But for Mattel, it didn't translate to the bottom line. Mattel that year generated an incremental $90 million in operating profit, so that's like 13% growth on a consolidated basis with the 'Barbie' movie. Barbie revenue was up 3% that year, but Barbie revenue since is down 22%. ... So, a massive deterioration of that Barbie brand since."

Some analysts said Kreiz became too focused on the entertainment side, leading to stagnation in toy innovation and slower sales.

"Post-Covid, earnings have been very stagnant," Johnson said. "The top line has flatlined. Margin growth has stalled. Innovation has stalled, and it just seems like a classic, you know, taking the eye off the ball."

Mattel's stock has "done a round trip under Kreiz's tenure," Morningstar senior analyst Jaime Katz wrote in a note published Tuesday. Shares roughly doubled to the mid-$20 range during his time as CEO, then fell back to around $15.

"Kreiz's strategy to establish Mattel as an IP-driven, high-performing toy company has largely fallen flat," Katz said.

Merging Paramount and WBD

The combination could take between two and three years in total, Laura Martin, analyst at Needham, wrote in a note to investors published Thursday.

Paramount Skydance has said it intends to realize $6 billion in cost savings within three years of closing. At the same time, Ellison and Kreiz will face around $79 billion in debt once the transaction completes.

"Over time, we expect cost synergies to be higher than the $6 billion promised," Martin wrote.

Executives have said the majority of the savings target will come from nonlabor costs, but exactly where remains to be seen. Ellison has previously said he intends to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one platform, a move that could shrink the infrastructure around those businesses.

The studio faces binding output commitments. To settle an antitrust lawsuit by a group of state attorneys general, Paramount Skydance agreed to release at least 30 films per year into theaters in 2027 and 2028, and at least 32 films annually in 2029, 2030 and 2031. It is unclear how much cost cutting the studios can absorb and still meet these quotas. Over at CBS, Skydance has agreed to prohibit writer layoffs on the broadcast team for at least five years.

A report from the Department of Economic Opportunity in Los Angeles suggests 4,500 film and TV jobs in the county are at risk over a three-year period as the companies combine operations.

"[Kreiz has] got a big task ahead of him," Handler said. "You know, there's a huge amount of debt, a massive integration situation that he's facing. But I think he'll do a great job with it."