Paramount's $110 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover Closes Tuesday

Paramount Skydance closes its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, completing a roughly $110 billion deal — on an enterprise basis — that creates one of the largest media conglomerates in history and hands the combined company control of nearly one-third of basic cable programming.

The merged entity will be named Skydance and trade under the ticker "SKYD," David Ellison announced on Oct. 2. The structure keeps Paramount and Warner Bros. as distinct brands under one corporate roof, spanning two of Hollywood's most storied film studios.

How did a rejected bid become a done deal?

The road to Tuesday's closing ran through three rejections, a bidding war with Netflix and Comcast, a lawsuit, and an antitrust challenge from state attorneys general.

• Aug. 7, 2025: Paramount closed its merger with Skydance, the company founded by Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Within days, CEO David Ellison paid $7.7 billion for multiyear UFC rights, then locked up a Call of Duty film and a deal with "Stranger Things" creators the Duffer Brothers.
• Late September–October 2025: Warner Bros. Discovery rejected three Paramount bids. The third, for slightly under $24 per share and 80% cash, was spurned even as Paramount argued in an Oct. 13 letter it delivered "superior value" versus WBD's planned split into two companies.
• Dec. 5, 2025: Netflix struck a deal for WBD's film and streaming assets worth nearly $83 billion on an enterprise basis. Paramount's lawyers immediately questioned the "fairness and adequacy" of the sale process in a letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav.
• Dec. 8, 2025: Paramount went hostile with an all-cash, $30-per-share offer for the entire company, cable networks included. "We're really here to finish what we started," Ellison told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "We put the company in play."

What broke the stalemate with Netflix?

Money and patience. On Jan. 20, 2026, Netflix switched its offer to $27.75 per share in cash. Paramount stayed at $30 but added sweeteners on Feb. 10: a "ticking fee" payable to shareholders if regulators delayed the deal, plus a commitment to cover the $2.8 billion breakup fee owed to Netflix.

Netflix granted WBD a seven-day waiver to reopen talks on Feb. 17. Paramount raised its bid to $31 per share in cash on Feb. 24. Netflix declined to match, its deal collapsed on Feb. 26, and Paramount and WBD signed a definitive merger agreement the next day. WBD shareholders approved the acquisition on April 23.

What nearly killed the merger?

Regulators and the courts. The Department of Justice approved the deal on June 12, 2026. On July 13, state attorneys general led by California's Rob Bonta sued to block it, citing risks of higher prices and lower-quality content. The EU cleared the acquisition on July 22, on condition Paramount divest its stake in United International Pictures and avoid film distribution deals with Universal in Europe for 10 years.

Facing a temporary restraining order, Paramount agreed on July 24 to delay closing until as late as June 2027. On Sept. 21, Paramount settled with the attorneys general — less than two weeks before the ticking fee would have raised the price. The settlement caps the year's arrangements with stipulations on the number of theatrical films the combined company releases and their required budgets.

Who runs the new Skydance?

Ellison will share the CEO seat with Ynon Kreiz, the outgoing Mattel chief who brought Barbie to theaters in 2023, Paramount announced Sept. 30. On Oct. 5, the pair named their leadership: Bari Weiss over CBS News and Mark Thompson over CNN, with Casey Bloys, George Cheeks and JB Perrette heading streaming and TV content. CNBC reported CBS Sports chief David Berson will run Skydance's global sports group.

The closing ends 16 months of deal-making that tested WBD's original plan to split itself in two. It also signals that, after a year in which media M&A briefly froze under regulatory pressure, scale won the argument.