Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Set Oct. 6 as Merger Close Date

Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery said Wednesday they expect the merger to close on October 6, subject to customary conditions. That date sits five days after a federal judge in California approved the settlement with a dozen state attorneys general who had sued to block the deal. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín entered the consent decree, dissolved the stipulation that barred closing, and called the package a fair, reasonable way to address the harms the states alleged. David Ellison has chased Warner for a year. Skydance took Paramount last year. This is the second combination, and the expensive one: roughly $110–111 billion including debt, cashing out WBD common at $31 a share plus a daily “ticking” add-on after September 30. If Tuesday is the close, that add-on is a sliver — about $0.0167 — for a total near $31.02. Every extra day after the original September 30 marker costs Paramount real money. Speed is not only optics. What the Judge Signed The states, led by California, argued a combined studio-streamer-news company would raise prices and shrink choice. The settlement does not unwind the merger. It loads operating promises onto it. Theatrical output floors: at least 30 films a year for the first two years, 32 a year for the next three, with minimums for wide and independent releases, and at least half produced or co-produced by the combined company. A separate pledge puts at least $1.5 billion of extra U.S. film and TV production over five years — $300 million a year. An editorial-independence board is supposed to sit over CNN and CBS News. The Writers Guild settled in parallel: $17.5 million into the guild health fund and five years of CBS News staffing commitments. Whether those numbers change what audiences see is a 2028 question. They were enough for the court to let the cash close. Regulators in 68 jurisdictions, including the U.S. Justice Department, had already cleared the transaction. The states were the holdout. Wednesday ended that holdout. It did not end integration risk. The New Bridge at the Top Minutes after the order, Paramount said Ynon Kreiz will join October 5 and become co-CEO when the deal is effective. Ellison stays chairman and CEO, owning strategy, creative, and technology. Kreiz owns day-to-day operations and the grind of welding two companies. He has run Mattel since 2018 and turned toy brands into films — including Barbie, Warner’s highest-grossing title. That résumé is the pitch: someone who has already sat on both sides of a studio-and-IP table. David Zaslav is expected to leave Warner Bros. Discovery with a package reported above $550 million in stock and cash, including more than $30 million in cash severance. Other senior WBD names are on the exit list. HBO’s Casey Bloys is already in line to run the combined streaming stack of Paramount+ and HBO Max. The org chart is being drawn before the stock even changes tape. Paramount Class B is slated to leave Nasdaq around the October 5 close and open on the New York Stock Exchange October 6. Warrants tied to the deal are a later distribution, contingent on closing. What Actually Combines Two of the last five major Hollywood studios. HBO Max and Paramount+. CNN and CBS News. Cable brands from MTV and Nickelodeon to Discovery. Franchises from Harry Potter, DC, and Game of Thrones to Mission: Impossible, Top Gun, and Yellowstone. That is the slide. The operating problem is duplicate slates, duplicate streamers, duplicate newsrooms, and a debt stack that includes a multi-ten-billion-dollar bond sale already in the market to help pay for cash-out. Ellison’s line is “creator-first, tech-forward and built to scale globally.” The settlement’s film floors are the states’ bet that scale will not mean fewer movies. The market’s bet is that scale means fewer buyers for talent and fewer places for a mid-budget title to live. What Can Still Slip October 6 is an anticipated date, not a stamped certificate. Customary closing conditions still apply. A blown wire on financing, a last objection, a systems issue — any of those can push the ticker fee another day. Paramount has been marketing on the order of $44 billion of bonds. That raise and the close have to finish in the same week. Opponents who wanted a block will now watch the consent decree the way they would watch a probation officer: count the 30 films, watch the news board, wait for the first slate that looks like a retreat. What to Watch Whether October 6 actually prints as the effective time. The first combined slate and how many of those 30 pictures are real wide releases. How fast Paramount+ and HBO Max share a login versus a brand. Whether the CNN–CBS independence board has a veto or a press release. Kreiz’s first 90 days on integration costs. Hollywood has been shrinking into fewer roofs for a decade. Tuesday, if it holds, puts two more under one. The judge did not bless the culture. She blessed a settlement so the check can clear. Digital8Hub will report if the close moves off October 6 and when the combined company name is confirmed.