Paramount wraps up mega Warner Bros merger to create Hollywood powerhouse Skydance

Combined company carries debt of about $80 billion David Ellison, co-CEO Ynon Kreiz face $6 billion savings target CNN and CBS News leadership to remain unchanged By Anzar Mehraj and Harshita Mary Varghese Oct 6 (Reuters) — Paramount Skydance on Tuesday completed its blockbuster $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, creating a Hollywood heavyweight called Skydance and handing CEO David Ellison control of one of the world's largest entertainment companies. The deal brings together the studios behind "Mission: Impossible," "Harry Potter" and DC Studios alongside major television and streaming networks such as CBS, CNN, Paramount+ and HBO Max — forming an expansive entertainment company spanning film, TV and news. Shares of the combined company moved to the New York Stock Exchange from Nasdaq on Tuesday to trade under the ticker "SKYD." Settlements with a coalition of US states and a Hollywood writers union removed the main legal barriers to the merger, one of the largest in media history. It comes as Hollywood faces declining cable-TV subscriptions, high cost of competing for streaming audiences and persistent pressure from unions over jobs and creative workers' rights..