Overview
- The transaction closed on Tuesday and the merged company began trading as Skydance, with David Ellison named chairman and CEO and Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO.
- Skydance announced a content leadership team that puts Casey Bloys in charge of streaming content and names Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein to run the combined motion picture group.
- The deal is valued at about $110–111 billion including assumed debt, and the new company starts with roughly $80 billion in leverage and a public target of about $6 billion in cost savings.
- As part of a settlement with U.S. state attorneys general, Skydance agreed to produce at least 30 theatrical films a year for a multi-year period and to create independent oversight mechanisms to protect CNN and CBS editorial independence.
- Company executives and industry observers say the immediate priorities are integrating two streaming services with an unspecified timeline, cutting costs to meet financial targets, and managing likely staff reductions and continued public scrutiny.