Paramount Skydance seals $110B Warner Bros deal as combined company hits NYSE

Investing.com -- Paramount Skydance Corp (NASDAQ: PSKY) completed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ: WBD) on Tuesday, establishing a global entertainment giant rebranded as Skydance. The combined entity moved its primary stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "SKYD," with shares easing around 2% in morning trading against the backdrop of broader market fluctuations.

Under the final transaction terms, Warner Bros Discovery shareholders received $31.0167 per share in cash, alongside an additional $41.9 million ticking fee to account for the duration between late September and closing. The deal brings together a formidable lineup of media assets, uniting legendary film studios, major streaming services, broadcast networks, and iconic news divisions like CBS News and CNN.

The strategic rationale centers on combining scale with technological innovation to navigate structural industry shifts, including accelerating cord-cutting and escalating content expenses. Management outlined ambitious operational commitments, pledging to deliver at least 30 theatrical films annually with guaranteed 45-day windows alongside more than 180 television series.

Financially, the consolidated enterprise generates nearly $70 billion in annual revenue and targets at least $6 billion in run-rate synergies over the next three years. Execution will focus on streamlining technology, marketing, and corporate infrastructure, with leadership projecting annual free cash flow to surpass $10 billion by 2030.

Balancing this commercial scale, however, is a heavily leveraged balance sheet carrying approximately $80 billion in total debt following the transaction. Chief Executive Officer David Ellison faces immediate operational pressure to integrate direct-to-consumer platforms, extract pledged synergies, and reduce net leverage to 3.0x by 2029.

To support the balance sheet, the transaction was anchored by $47 billion in new equity investment priced at $12.00 per share, backed by the Ellison Family, RedBird Capital, and several sovereign funds. Voting control remains strictly consolidated, with the Ellison Family and RedBird holding 100% of the combined company’s Class A voting shares.

The closing follows key regulatory clearances spanning nearly 70 global jurisdictions and recent settlements with state attorneys general and creative labor unions. With legal and regulatory hurdles cleared, attention shifts to Ellison’s plan to unify streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single, cohesive platform.

Original Article

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