The combined entity will trade as Skydance under the ticker SKYD and control nearly one-third of basic cable programming in the United States. The close ends a fifteen-month campaign that saw three rejected bids, a competing offer from Netflix worth nearly $83 billion on an enterprise basis, and a hostile all-cash tender at $30 per share that forced the target’s board to negotiate.
The bid that wouldn't die
Paramount’s merger with Skydance closed on August 7, 2025, installing David Ellison as chief executive. Within days he committed $7.7 billion for TKO Group’s UFC rights, then added the Call of Duty film franchise and a multiyear deal with the Duffer Brothers. By September 11 CNBC reported that the newly combined company was preparing an offer for Warner Bros. Discovery. Three bids followed in late September and early October, the last at slightly less than $24 per share with 80 percent cash. Warner Bros. Discovery rejected each one.
The Netflix detour
Warner Bros. Discovery announced a strategic review on October 21 after acknowledging unsolicited interest from Netflix and Comcast. In mid-November all three suitors submitted formal proposals. Comcast and Netflix bid for the film studio and HBO Max only; Paramount Skydance bid for the entire company, linear networks included. On December 5 Netflix agreed to buy the streaming and studio assets for nearly $83 billion enterprise value while Warner Bros. Discovery would spin TNT, CNN and the rest of its cable portfolio into Discovery Global. Paramount’s attorneys immediately wrote to chief executive David Zaslav challenging the fairness of the process.
The hostile turn
Eight days later Paramount Skydance went hostile with an all-cash $30-per-share offer for the whole company. “We’re really here to finish what we started,” Ellison told CNBC. “We put the company in play.” Warner Bros. Discovery rejected that offer on January 7, 2026, doubling down on the Netflix agreement. The source text ends at that point; the subsequent settlement that cleared the path to Tuesday’s close is not detailed in the material provided.
What the terms reveal
The final structure, cash consideration, break fees, conditions, is absent from the public record. Ellison’s rationale, framed as “defining the next era of entertainment,” is a claim, not a fact. What is verifiable is that the buyer paid a substantial premium to the undisturbed price, absorbed a declining linear asset base, and did so after the target’s board twice endorsed a rival transaction. The leverage shifted only when Paramount Skydance demonstrated it would outbid Netflix for the entire capital structure, networks and all.
What to watch
Integration of two studios with overlapping libraries and competing streaming priorities will test whether scale alone solves the economics of legacy cable. The market will also watch whether the SKYD ticker attracts a conglomerate discount or a re-rating on the promise of a unified content engine. The first earnings call under the new name will be the earliest test of whether the premium was justified.