dpCEO of Paramount Skydance David Ellison poses on the red carpet for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 7, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison announced Friday that upon closing his company’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery next week, the combined entity will be named Skydance.
It’s a full-circle moment for a company that has undergone two major acquisitions within the last 18 months.
“Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture,” Ellison wrote in social media post Friday. “By combining them, we aren’t rewriting history — we’re equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first home for bold, quality storytelling.”
Ellison noted the new name allows the company to preserve Paramount and Warner Bros. as distinct studios. The merged company will trade under the new ticker “SKYD.”
“We never wanted a new corporate identity to diminish, alter or overshadow either one,” he said. “Instead, we wanted a name that would give the combined company an identity of its own while allowing Paramount and Warner Bros. — and all our extraordinary brands — to remain in the spotlight.”
The Paramount and Warner Bros. studios together are set to release 35 films next year, according to data from Rentrak.
In August 2025, Ellison’s Skydance — the production company behind “Mission Impossible” movies and “Top Gun: Maverick” — closed its acquisition of Paramount. Weeks later, the CEO set his sights on Warner Bros. Discovery in a takeover effort that would ultimately launch a bidding war.
In February, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery struck an agreement worth roughly $110 billion on an enterprise basis.
After settling a legal challenge brought by a group of state attorneys general, Paramount Skydance said this week the deal is expected to close on Tuesday.
Upon closing, Ellison and outgoing Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz will serve as co-CEOs.
