David Ellison has put names to the top of Skydance Corp. on the eve of closing the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The appointments cover two movie studios, TV networks, streaming, news and corporate functions, with the combined company set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange as SKYD on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
The new operating map
Ellison will be chairman and CEO. Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief, joins as co-CEO, with the divisions of the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. reporting to both. The corporate layer includes Andy Gordon as president, Dennis Cinelli as chief financial officer and Rebecca Mall as chief marketing officer.
Film goes to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, previously co-chairs of Paramount Pictures. Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group heads Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca are not joining the new company. The other content lines are assigned like this:
- Film: Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, co-chairs, Skydance Motion Picture Group.
- Television: George Cheeks, co-chair and chief content officer; JB Perrette, co-chair and chief business officer.
- Streaming: Casey Bloys, co-chair and chief content officer, Skydance DTC; Perrette also chief business officer.
- DC Studios: James Gunn and Peter Safran remain co-chairmen.
- News: Mark Thompson stays as CNN chief; Bari Weiss is editor-in-chief of CBS News.
The numbers behind the deal
Paramount’s $111 billion agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery was signed in February 2026. It received regulatory clearance in 68 countries, and the final US approval came last week when a judge approved Paramount’s settlement with 12 state attorneys general.
The new company starts with an estimated $80 billion-plus in net debt. Ellison framed the ambition as creative rather than financial.
“Together, Paramount and Warner Bros. will form a creative-first home with the scale, imagination and technology to define entertainment for a generation.”
That is the pitch to talent and investors. For media planners and entertainment marketers, the balance sheet is the thing to watch.
Why the org chart matters
The leadership list shows where consolidation is concentrating authority. Film remains with Paramount’s current co-chairs, while Warner’s film leaders exit. In streaming, HBO’s Bloys taking the DTC content seat signals continuity for that platform’s programming identity, while Perrette’s business remit across TV and DTC suggests the two will be managed together on distribution and deal terms.
For buyers, the practical job is account-mapping. Instead of two separate sellers, they now face one company that controls two studios and a large streaming portfolio. Rights holders, production partners and service vendors also have a single named buyer per vertical: Goldberg and Greenstein for film, Cheeks for TV, Bloys for streaming, and Thompson and Weiss for news. The debt load may make the new Skydance more aggressive on price and licensing volume, not less.
Watch the first days of SKYD trading. It will show whether the market believes a creative-first strategy can support more than $80 billion in net debt.
Source: Variety
