The deal is done. Skydance-owned Paramount officially closed its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, folding CNN, HBO Max, CBS and some of the most recognizable names in American entertainment into a single company now operating under the Skydance name.
The merger, worth nearly $111 billion once debt is factored in, puts billionaire David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz atop a sprawling media empire that includes everything from “Harry Potter” and “Sinners” to “Top Gun” and “The Godfather.” It is one of the largest media consolidations in American history, and it comes after a yearlong fight that began when Ellison’s Skydance bought Paramount for $8 billion last year before turning its sights on the far larger Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” Ellison said in a statement Tuesday. “We couldn’t be more excited to get to work.”
A Hostile Bid and a Bidding War
Warner initially agreed to a studio and streaming deal with Netflix in December. Paramount, claiming Warner management “never engaged meaningfully” with its earlier offers, responded with a hostile bid to take over the entire company, including CNN and Discovery.
The two media giants spent early 2026 locked in a public fight, with Warner leadership repeatedly siding with Netflix. Paramount ultimately raised its offer to $31 per share for the whole company, Netflix walked away, and Warner and Paramount signed a merger agreement in late February.
Hollywood Pushes Back
The deal did not go unchallenged inside the industry. In April, thousands of actors, writers and directors signed an open letter declaring their “unequivocal opposition” to the merger, warning it would mean fewer jobs and “less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.” Signatories included Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo, Denis Villeneuve and J.J. Abrams.
Other prominent figures lined up behind Ellison, including director James Cameron. Paramount leaned on Tom Cruise to narrate a promotional film at CinemaCon this spring, closing with the line, “the future is paramount and the future looks pretty great from here.”
The debate spilled into awards season, with some wearing “#BlockTheMerger” pins. Accepting an Emmy last month, actor Sally Field, who also signed the opposition letter, said “unique storytelling matters” and warned “we can’t let those voices be silenced, or compromised or merged.”
The Government Weighs In
President Trump has repeatedly attacked CNN’s coverage and recently sought to bar the network from the White House altogether. His administration did not stay quiet during the Warner buyout fight.
“I think the people who have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace,” Trump said in December, adding it’s “imperative that CNN be sold.”
In March, after CNN’s coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
Ellison has said he will maintain editorial independence at CNN. As part of a settlement with the states, the new company agreed to form a “News Editorial Independence Board,” and Mark Thompson will remain CNN’s editor-in-chief. But critics point to turmoil already underway at CBS under Skydance ownership and note Ellison will have significant say over who sits on the new board.
Trump has continued to criticize CBS’s coverage under Skydance, even as his family has maintained close ties to Ellison. Paramount’s chief reportedly hosted a dinner in Trump’s honor in Washington in April, the same day Warner shareholders approved the merger. In June, two days after the Justice Department said it would not intervene in the deal, Ellison attended a UFC match on the White House lawn for Trump’s 80th birthday, streamed on Paramount+.
