Paramount closed its $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, combining CNN, CBS, HBO, Warner Bros. and HGTV under a single corporate roof and placing the new entity under the voting control of the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners, according to the New York Post.
The merged company will operate under the name Skydance. Including debt, it carries a valuation of roughly $111 billion. David Ellison, the Skydance founder who previously acquired Paramount, serves as chairman and CEO, with former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO.
In its closing announcement, the company said the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners are the sole holders of its Class A common stock, including 100% of the combined company’s voting shares. The family is led by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, a longtime Republican donor and supporter of President Donald Trump.
A ‘Historic Day’ for the New Owner
In a statement accompanying the close, David Ellison called the completion of the deal a landmark moment for the industry.
“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” he said. “From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere. Now that ambition is a reality.”
He thanked employees, creative talent and production teams at both companies, as well as the advisers and partners who guided the transaction, and said attention now shifts to “building a company that empowers creatives, entertains audiences and rewards shareholders.”
How the Deal Cleared Its Final Hurdles
Paramount won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery in February after Netflix walked away from its own studio-and-streaming bid. The Justice Department under Trump later cleared the full-company deal, concluding it was unlikely to harm competition.
That clearance did not end the fight. In July, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of Democratic attorneys general sued to block the merger, and U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, a Biden appointee, issued a temporary restraining order. Paramount criticized the challenge as one of the weakest merger cases in modern antitrust history, and advisers floated moving tens of billions of dollars in planned spending out of California.
The states eventually settled. Under the terms of that settlement, an editorial-independence board will oversee CNN and CBS News, and the studio lots will continue operating, among other conditions.
Leadership at the two news divisions remains in place for now. Mark Thompson stays on as CNN’s chief, and Bari Weiss is set to lead CBS News. The settlement was structured to prevent an abrupt editorial shift, and there is no indication the network’s on-air posture changed the moment the deal closed.
Inside CNN, a Somber Mood
Even so, the atmosphere inside CNN ahead of the close was tense. Last month, insiders told Variety the mood at the network was “like a funeral” as the Paramount close approached.
The political resonance of the deal has been building for months. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking during CNN’s coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in March, said “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” a remark noted by the Boston Globe in its coverage of the close.
A Long History of Republican Giving
The Ellison family’s ties to Republican politics date back years, driven largely by Larry Ellison, who has become one of the technology industry’s most prolific GOP donors.
Ellison first backed Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican presidential primary before aligning with Trump after Trump clinched the nomination. In February 2020, he hosted Trump for a major reelection fundraiser at his private estate in Rancho Mirage, California — an event listed on the president’s official schedule.
His giving to Republican causes grew from there. In 2021, he contributed $5 million to the Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC supporting Republican Sen. Tim Scott, then added another $15 million in January 2022, bringing his total to the group to $20 million at the time. Forbes also reported a $1 million donation to a super PAC backing Republican Sen. Susan Collins and $250,000 to a group supporting Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
During the 2024 election cycle, his support for Trump grew substantially. The Wall Street Journal reported in June 2026 that Ellison gave roughly $45 million to a political nonprofit supporting Trump’s 2024 effort, plus millions more to Trump-aligned organizations after the election. Because much of that money moved through nonprofits that face looser disclosure requirements than federal political committees, those contributions do not necessarily appear in traditional FEC records.
David Ellison’s own political giving has been more varied. Federal campaign-finance filings show he donated $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund in February 2024, and the Washington Post identified him as one of Biden’s notable large donors during that year’s first quarter.
How friendly the new media empire will be toward the Democratic establishment that fought the merger remains an open question — one made more complicated by the political and regulatory battle that preceded Tuesday’s close.
RedBird’s Role and Washington Ties
RedBird Capital Partners, the Ellison family’s partner in holding the voting shares, was founded by former Goldman Sachs executive Gerry Cardinale and manages more than $15 billion across sports, media, entertainment and financial services. Cardinale has also built a direct relationship with the Trump administration: RedBird says Trump appointed him to the White House Committee on Reforming College Athletics in 2026.
With the close now official, the combined company’s next moves — and how its new owners approach two of the country’s most closely watched newsrooms — will be the subject of intense scrutiny from both sides of the political divide.
Source: www.thegatewaypundit.com — https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/10/its-official-paramount-closes-81-billion-warner-bros/