Paramount Completes Warner Bros. Discovery Acquisition to Form Skydance After Beating Netflix

Paramount completed its massive acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, placing tech scion David Ellison in control of the newly consolidated entity known as Skydance. Ellison successfully wrested the media empire away from Netflix following a monthslong bidding war that required nine distinct offers. State attorneys general agreed to settle their antitrust lawsuit to block the deal after extracting a series of major concessions, including the creation of an editorial independence board to safeguard CNN. The merger settlement also includes a binding promise from Ellison to spend an additional $1.5B on movies over the next five years. Despite the regulatory settlement, hundreds of Hollywood insiders warned that the extreme corporate consolidation will lead to further stagnation and significant job losses across the entertainment sector. "Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry." — David Ellison