Paramount–WBD deal closes; Skydance Corp starts trading as SKYD

The roughly $111 billion Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed Tuesday, and the combined company — Skydance Corp — began trading on the NYSE under the ticker SKYD. David Zaslav is out; former Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz joins David Ellison as co-CEO, Casey Bloys will run streaming, and production chiefs De Luca and Abdy are leaving. Chris Thompson stays at CNN and Bari Weiss at CBS News, while the five-member editorial-independence board has yet to be named.

The close caps a deal that cleared its final hurdle last week when a federal judge approved the merger settlement, which requires the combined company to produce at least 30 theatrical films a year and spend an additional $1.5 billion on production over five years.

Sources: Broadband TV News, Particle