Skydance CEO David Ellison and the company's leadership team rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, marking the completion of Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The ceremony closed a deal process that had stretched for nearly a year, but the combined company now faces a more difficult task: integrating Paramount+ and HBO Max while managing about $80 billion in debt and competing with Netflix, Disney and YouTube.
A year-long deal process gives way to integration
Ellison and the new leadership team appeared on the NYSE trading floor in Manhattan's Financial District. Days earlier, Ellison had addressed employees on Skydance's first day as a newly formed company. The transaction involved an unsolicited bid from Paramount, a competing offer from Netflix, litigation and a settlement before closing at a value of $110 billion.
The combined group brings together Paramount and WBD's film, television and streaming businesses. The deal expands the company's content library and portfolio of well-known intellectual property, but the new team still has to align its operations, platforms and management structures. How effectively HBO Max and Paramount+ can be combined or coordinated will shape the company's position in the subscription-streaming market.
Shares rebound, but remain down for the year
Skydance shares rose more than 5% on Thursday. They were still down about 30% year to date, while the decline over the past 12 months was close to half. The celebratory tone of the opening-bell event did little to displace investor attention from the company's debt load and the execution risks of integration.
Speaking to CNBC at the NYSE, Ellison said the company was “positioned to win in every area of our operations.” He also pointed to the combined content-production capabilities of Paramount and Warner Bros. and their portfolio of prominent intellectual property. Those are management's expectations for the merger; the extent to which the businesses can work together will be tested in future operating results.
NYSE ceremony puts the new group and its leaders on display
A large Skydance banner hung outside the trading floor, where displays featured the Skydance, Paramount and Warner Bros. brands. Props from films and franchises were also on show, including a helmet from Top Gun: Maverick, a Gryffindor uniform and Golden Snitch from Harry Potter, and the shoes from Forrest Gump.
Representatives from Paramount, Skydance and major investor RedBird Capital attended. Ynon Kreiz, Skydance's newly appointed co-CEO, appeared alongside Ellison. Kreiz previously led Mattel as CEO and had joined Skydance less than a week before the ceremony.
After the bell-ringing, Ellison and other executives met with NYSE staff and posed for photographs to mark the new company's public debut. The next tests are financial and operational: managing about $80 billion in debt and integrating the two streaming services alongside the broader content businesses.