LOS ANGELES, California, and NEW YORK — Paramount has completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, creating a combined company called Skydance and bringing two of the world’s largest television, streaming, film, news and sports portfolios under common ownership.

The closing was announced Tuesday, October 6. The new company includes CBS, CBS News, CNN, HBO, HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto TV, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, CBS Sports, TNT Sports and a large group of cable networks and production operations.

Skydance said Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders received $31.01666668 in cash per share. Warner Bros. Discovery shares have stopped trading on Nasdaq, while Skydance Class B shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “SKYD.”

The company says the combined business has nearly $70 billion in annual revenue and more than 200 million streaming subscribers across its platforms. Those figures come from Skydance and have not yet been demonstrated through results from the newly combined operation.

Skydance is targeting more than $6 billion in annualized savings within three years. The company says most of those savings are expected to come from technology, integration and procurement, marketing and real-estate changes. Reuters reports the combined company will carry approximately $80 billion in debt and says the size of the savings effort is expected to affect employment, although the company has not announced a final job-reduction total.

David Ellison will serve as chairman and chief executive, with Ynon Kreiz as co-chief executive responsible for day-to-day operations and integration. Mark Thompson is remaining in charge of CNN, and Bari Weiss will continue leading CBS News. How the two news organizations will operate within the same parent company remains unresolved.

The Radio News Now question: Can Skydance deliver $6 billion in savings without weakening newsroom independence, employment, affiliate support and the range of programming available to viewers?

Sources: Skydance Corporation closing announcement; Reuters; The Associated Press.