Paramount and Skydance close their $8 billion merger, kicking off reign
of new entertainment giant
[August 08, 2025] By
WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS
NEW YORK (AP) — Skydance and Paramount officially closed their $8
billion merger on Thursday — kicking off the reign of a new
entertainment giant after a contentious, over year-long endeavor to get
the transaction over the finish line.
The new company — which will trade under the “PSKY” ticker on Wall
Street — brings Paramount's legacy Hollywood footprint, major TV
networks like CBS and MTV, streaming services and more under the roof of
a new power player: billionaire Skydance founder David Ellison.
“Today marks an exciting and pivotal moment as we prepare to bring
Paramount’s legacy as a Hollywood institution into the future of
entertainment," Ellison, who is now Chairman and CEO of Paramount, a
Skydance Corporation, said in a statement. He added that he aims to
“honor exceptional storytelling while modernizing how we make and
deliver content."
The merger's close came just two weeks after it received regulatory
approval from the Trump administration. While now a done deal, the path
towards that approval was far from smooth sailing. Months of scrutiny
and turmoil surrounded the transaction — particularly amid President
Donald Trump’s legal battle with “60 Minutes,” the crown jewel of
Paramount-owned broadcast network CBS. With the specter of the Trump
administration potentially blocking the hard-fought deal with Skydance,
Paramount agreed to pay a $16 million settlement to the president in
early July.
Critics of the settlement lambasted it as a veiled bribe to appease
Trump, amid rising alarm over editorial independence overall. Further
outrage also emerged after CBS said it was canceling Stephen Colbert’s
“Late Show” just days after the comedian sharply criticized the parent
company’s settlement on air. Paramount cited financial reasons, but big
names both within and outside the company have questioned those motives.
When still seeking approval to buy Paramount from the Federal
Communication Commission, Skydance management assured regulators that it
would carefully watch for any perceived bias at CBS News and hire an
ombudsman to review any complaints about fairness. In filings just last
month, the company’s general counsel maintained that New Paramount will
embody “a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological
spectrum” — and also noted that it plans to take a “comprehensive
review” of CBS to make “any necessary changes.”
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 By the time the deal was approved,
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr hailed the merger as an opportunity to
bring more balance to “once-storied” CBS. “Americans no longer trust
the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and
fairly. It is time for a change," Carr said.
Carr also pointed to other commitments from
Skydance — including company assurances about ending diversity,
equity and inclusion initiatives at Paramount. In a letter addressed
to Carr days before the FCC's greenlight, Skydance wrote to “confirm
the elimination” of DEI initiatives previously in place at Paramount
— and maintained that Skydance “does not have DEI programs in place
today and will not establish such initiatives.”
Skydance pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision on affirmative
action in college admissions, but such moves also arrive amid the
Trump administration’s wider crackdown on DEI in the workplace — and
the company cited recent federal mandates impacting employers, too,
noting that Paramount announced “significant changes” to its
recruiting and hiring practices in February 2025.
The FCC approved the merger by a 2-1 vote on July 24. The regulator
who opposed it, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, expressed disdain for
how it all came together — pointing to “months of cowardly
capitulation to this administration.”
“In an unprecedented move, this once-independent FCC used its vast
power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and
further erode press freedom,” Gomez, who was appointed by President
Joe Biden, said in a statement. She also said the agency overstepped
its authority by “undermining legitimate efforts to combat
discrimination and expand opportunity.”
Paramount's new leaders will be watched particularly closely for how
they deal with CBS News, given the $16 million settlement with Trump
following his complaint about last fall's “60 Minutes” interview
with his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. And
the merger could also have ripple effects across other Paramount
properties, including its late night and comedy programming.
When first announcing the deal in July 2024, Ellison also stressed
the need to transition into a “tech hybrid” to stay competitive in
today’s entertainment landscape. That included plans to “rebuild”
the Paramount+ streaming service, among wider efforts to expand
direct-to-consumer offerings in a world with more entertainment
options and shorter attention spans.
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