Merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global
Logos before the merger | |
Logo after the merger | |
| Initiator | Skydance Media |
|---|---|
| Target | Paramount Global |
| Type | Merger |
| Cost | US$8 billion |
| Initiated | July 7, 2024 |
| Completed | August 7, 2025 |
| Resulting entity | Paramount Skydance Corporation |
| Part of a series on |
| Democratic backsliding in the United States during the second Trump administration |
|---|
| 1886 | Westinghouse Electric Corporation is founded as Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company |
|---|---|
| 1912 | Famous Players Film Company is founded |
| 1913 | Lasky Feature Play Company is founded |
| 1914 | Paramount Pictures is founded |
| 1916 | Famous Players and Lasky merge as Famous Players–Lasky and acquire Paramount |
| 1927 | Famous Players–Lasky is renamed Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation; CBS is founded with investment from Columbia Records |
| 1929 | Paramount acquires 49% of CBS |
| 1930 | Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation is renamed Paramount Publix Corporation |
| 1932 | Paramount sells back its shares of CBS |
| 1934 | Gulf+Western is founded as the Michigan Bumper Corporation |
| 1935 | Paramount Publix Corporation is renamed Paramount Pictures |
| 1936 | National Amusements is founded as Northeast Theater Corporation |
| 1938 | CBS acquires Columbia Records |
| 1950 | Desilu is founded and CBS distributes its television programs |
| 1952 | CBS creates the CBS Television Film Sales division |
| 1958 | CBS Television Film Sales is renamed CBS Films |
| 1966 | Gulf+Western acquires Paramount |
| 1967 | Gulf+Western acquires Desilu and renames it Paramount Television (now CBS Studios) |
| 1968 | CBS Films is renamed CBS Enterprises |
| 1970 | CBS Enterprises is renamed Viacom |
| 1971 | Viacom is spun off from CBS |
| 1987 | National Amusements acquires Viacom |
| 1988 | CBS sells Columbia Records to Sony |
| 1989 | Gulf+Western is renamed Paramount Communications |
| 1994 | Viacom acquires Paramount Communications |
| 1995 | Paramount Television and United Television launch UPN; Westinghouse acquires CBS |
| 1997 | Westinghouse is renamed CBS Corporation |
| 2000 | Viacom acquires UPN and CBS Corporation |
| 2005 | Viacom splits into the second CBS Corporation and Viacom |
| 2006 | Skydance Media is founded as Skydance Productions; CBS Corporation shuts down UPN and replaces it with The CW |
| 2009 | Paramount and Skydance enter an agreement to co-produce and co-finance films |
| 2017 | CBS Corporation sells CBS Radio to Entercom (now Audacy) |
| 2019 | CBS Corporation and Viacom re-merge as ViacomCBS |
| 2022 | ViacomCBS is renamed Paramount Global |
| 2025 | Skydance acquires National Amusements and merges with Paramount Global as Paramount Skydance |
| 2026 | Paramount Skydance enters into a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery |
On July 7, 2024, American media companies Skydance Media and Paramount Global announced a definitive agreement to merge in a deal valued at $8 billion, forming a new entity known as "Paramount Skydance Corporation". The agreement valued the newly formed entity at approximately $28 billion.
In 2023, after grappling with debt and striving to remain competitive in the entertainment industry, Paramount's parent company, National Amusements, explored potential merger and acquisition opportunities for Paramount Global. Skydance reached a preliminary agreement on July 2, 2024, to perform a 3-way merger between it, National Amusements, and Paramount to establish what was then known as "New Paramount". After the merger closed, Skydance Media CEO David Ellison became the chairman and CEO of the combined company and Jeff Shell became the president.
The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2025, pending required regulatory approvals, according to reports. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Commission (EC) approved the transaction in February 2025. On July 24, 2025, the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. On August 1, 2025, Skydance announced that the transaction would close six days later, which occurred on August 7, 2025.
The evaluation of the merger by U.S. regulators was affected by Donald Trump becoming president for a second term. At the time, Trump was in an on-going lawsuit with CBS, one of Paramount's properties, alleging that CBS News's reporting amounted to election interference; lawyers widely described the lawsuit as baseless. However, in an extraordinary move, Paramount paid $16 million to settle the CBS-Trump lawsuit in July 2025 to ensure that the FCC, headed by a Trump loyalist, would not block the merger. Paramount also chose to not renew The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after Colbert referred to the settlement on-air as a "big fat bribe". After the merger went through, David Ellison made conservative-friendly changes to CBS News, including hiring conservative political commentator Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief. Trump praised the decisions to hire Weiss and to cancel The Late Show.