Skydance Name Goes Up on Warner Bros. Water Tower as $111B Merger Closes

Workers repainted the iconic Warner Bros. water tower in Burbank on Tuesday morning, adding the line "A Skydance Corporation" shortly after Paramount officially closed its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

The update to the famous studio-lot landmark came within hours of the deal's completion. It confirms what industry observers had suspected since August 2025, when the Paramount Pictures water tower in Hollywood received the same addition after Skydance Media's takeover of Paramount Global: David Ellison planned all along to rename the merged Paramount-WBD entity as Skydance, the film production company he founded in 2006.

What does the merger create?

The combined company brings together two major Hollywood studios along with:

• TV networks including CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV and TNT
• Streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max
• Annual revenue of nearly $70 billion, according to the company

The new Skydance also inherits a heavy balance sheet. The company will have to manage paying down some $80 billion in net debt.

Ownership is tightly concentrated. The Ellison family — with the backing of Larry Ellison, David's multibillionaire father — holds the largest equity stake. The Ellisons and investment firm RedBird Capital Partners together are the sole holders of Paramount Class A common stock, giving them 100% control of the combined company's voting shares.

David Ellison serves as chairman and CEO of the new Skydance. Ynon Kreiz, formerly chief executive of Mattel, is co-CEO.

What did executives tell employees?

Ellison and Kreiz sent a lengthy memo to employees of the combined company on Tuesday morning, outlining their goals while acknowledging that job cuts are coming as the two operations integrate.

"Integrating two companies will bring change, including difficult decisions that affect our workforce," the executives wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Variety. "We are committed to handling this process thoughtfully and respectfully."

The merger had been opposed by many actors, filmmakers and other industry professionals before its completion.

At a town hall Tuesday with employees of the former Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, livestreamed around the globe, both Ellison and Kreiz delivered remarks from Los Angeles. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper moderated a Q&A session with the two executives.

"Let's be honest – it wasn't easy to get here," Ellison told staffers, according to a source. "At times it was downright ugly. And at nearly every turn, someone told us it couldn't be done. And here we are."

He continued: "I'm not telling you this to relive it. I'm telling you because every setback, every hard night, every moment when it would have been easier to walk away, was worth it. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. Why? Because of what we now get to build together."

What comes next?

The speed of the water-tower repainting signals how quickly Ellison intends to stamp the Skydance identity on the combined media giant. The harder test begins now: integrating two studio operations, absorbing roughly $80 billion in net debt and executing the workforce reductions the executives have already promised — all while keeping nearly $70 billion in annual revenue flowing.