Hollywood's new giant puts CNN and CBS News under one owner

What Skydance now owns and what it paid

Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on 6 October 2026, closing a transaction that places Warner Bros., Paramount, HBO, CNN and CBS News inside a single corporate structure for the first time.^[1] David Ellison, serving as Chairman and CEO of the combined company, said the deal would create a stronger competitor with the talent, resources and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere. Ynon Kreiz steps in alongside him as co-CEO.

The company's Class B shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD the same day.^[1] Ellison framed the close as the delivery of a founding ambition, one he had carried since Skydance first set its sights on WBD's asset base.

How the numbers stack up

The aggregate merger consideration payable by Skydance came to approximately US$78 billion, with WBD Series A common stockholders receiving about US$31.02 per share in cash.^[2] That cash figure sits inside a larger capital structure: WBD carried an equity value of US$81 billion and an enterprise value of US$110 billion when the merger was agreed.^[3]

The transaction was funded through US$47 billion of new Class B equity investment at US$16.02 per share and US$54 billion of debt commitments led by Bank of America, Citigroup and Apollo.^[3] The distinction between the US$78 billion merger consideration, the US$81 billion equity value and the US$110 billion enterprise value is worth holding: the first is the cheque written to WBD shareholders, the second is the market capitalisation implied by the deal terms, and the third folds in roughly US$29 billion of net debt the new entity absorbs.

Streaming merger: one app, no name, no timeline

Skydance plans to unify HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single direct-to-consumer streaming service over time, though the company provided no name, pricing structure or launch date for the combined product.^[1] For Australian subscribers, that eventual merger brings together two distinct market presences: Paramount+, which operates independently in Australia, and HBO Max, which Warner Bros. Discovery launched in Australia as a standalone service on 31 March 2025 after HBO shows left Foxtel's Binge.

Gerry Cardinale, Founder and Managing Partner of RedBird Capital and a Skydance board director, said the owner-operator model would be applied to Paramount and WBD's unmatched portfolio of iconic franchises, premium original programming and live sports rights to protect that legacy while building for a media landscape undergoing transformational change. What that model produces in streaming terms remains the central unanswered question of the deal's opening day.

CNN and CBS News under one roof

The combined company's portfolio includes two of the United States' most recognised news organisations, CBS News and CNN, now operating under a single corporate parent for the first time.^[1] The close-of-deal press release made no reference to editorial independence arrangements, newsroom separation or any governance framework covering the two organisations' journalism operations.

Concentrating two cable and broadcast news brands inside an entertainment conglomerate whose primary obligations run to shareholders and streaming subscriber counts creates structural tensions that neither Ellison nor Cardinale addressed in their closing-day statements. Whether Skydance installs a firewall between ownership and editorial, and how enforceable any such arrangement proves, will shape coverage of the company itself in the years ahead.

Regulatory clearance across 70 jurisdictions

The deal received approval from competition and foreign investment authorities in nearly 70 jurisdictions worldwide, including the US Department of Justice, Canada's Competition Bureau, Brazil's CADE, China's SAMR and Australia's ACCC.^[1] The European Commission granted unconditional approval under its Foreign Subsidies Regulation on 22 July 2026, a milestone Skydance's Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim said reflected the Commission's constructive engagement and thorough analysis throughout its review.^[4]

The breadth of that regulatory sweep, spanning five continents and both major merger-control and foreign-subsidy frameworks, reflects how deeply these two studios' content and distribution networks were already embedded in global markets. Skydance's first full trading day on the NYSE under the SKYD ticker will offer bond and equity markets their initial verdict on whether US$110 billion in enterprise value, and the debt load that comes with it, was the right price to pay on 6 October 2026.