PSKY, WBD Now Officially To Be Skydance

Paramount Skydance chief executive David Ellison said Friday that the company formed by combining Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be named Skydance, a choice meant to give the merged business its own identity without erasing the studios that built it.

The new corporate name will take effect when the roughly $110 billion deal closes next week. Paramount and Warner Bros. will remain distinct studio brands under the larger company, rather than being folded into a single consumer-facing label. Ellison said the decision was deliberate: the goal was not to rewrite a century of Hollywood history, but to put a stronger engine behind studios he described as iconic.

“What once was the peak is now just the beginning,” Ellison wrote. “Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. 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.”

He said both studios have distinct identities, long legacies and brands that have held audiences for generations. A new corporate name, he added, was never meant to diminish, alter or overshadow either one. Instead, Skydance is intended as the parent identity, leaving Paramount, Warner Bros. and the rest of the company’s brands in the spotlight.

The announcement follows a court order this week that cleared the last major obstacle to the merger. A judge approved a September settlement with a California-led group of 12 states that had sued to block the deal, arguing it would concentrate too much power over film and television. The companies have said the transaction is expected to close around October 6.

Under the new structure, Skydance will be led by Ellison as chairman and chief executive, with former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO. The company plans to change its ticker from PSKY to SKYD and to amend its certificate of incorporation to Skydance Corporation. The combined business will house two of Hollywood’s major film studios, the HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming services, and television brands including CBS, CNN, MTV and others.

Ellison founded Skydance Media in 2006. That company acquired Paramount last year and then moved to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, ending a contest that had also drawn a bid from Netflix for parts of the Warner business. Friday’s naming puts his original studio title on the corporate parent of both.