Hollywood Welcomes New Player With Merger of Paramount and Skydance Media

After months of back and forth, Paramount Global And Skydance Media announced their merger. Merger talks began late last year and, after an initial rejection last month, Paramount agreed to merge with Skydance.

However, the outcome is not yet set in stone, as Paramount has 45 days to consider its other offers.

Player Presentation

Most people are familiar with Paramount, one of the five most well-known production and distribution companies in the media industry, alongside Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Studios, and Sony Pictures.

Paramount Global owns traditional television networks, such as CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon; a streaming service, Paramount+; and of course, the Paramount Pictures film studio. Paramount Pictures It is the second oldest film studio in the United States and is home to well-known classics, such as The Godfather, Chinatown and Top Gun.

Its future owner, Skydance Media, may not be as recognizable to the layperson, but the company has actually been working with the movie studio since 2009.

The production company has worked with Paramount to co-produce and co-finance films that Paramount Pictures distributes. Most of these collaborations involve Paramount Pictures' big-budget films, including the Mission: Impossible, Terminator and Transformers franchises.

Fusion and unity

Given Paramount's long history in the industry and its current status as one of the five largest media companies, some might be surprised by the merger announcement.

Paramount has actually lost more than 70% of its market value since 2019. Some attribute this loss to Paramount's late entry into the streaming market with Paramount+, which meant the streaming service didn't turn a profit in time to cover its declining revenue from traditional TV services.

Paramount Global also announced a $500 million reduction plan earlier this year. As part of that plan, the company laid off 800 employees and will continue to reduce its workforce until the Skydance deal is finalized.

This agreement therefore appears well placed to help both companies progress in the competitive media sector.

Skydance will first buy National Amusements, which owns 77% of Paramount's voting stock, for $1.75 billion, after which Skydance and Paramount will merge.

Turn up Ellison's volume

With this agreement, an interesting name is increasingly appearing in the world of entertainment: that of Ellison.

Skydance Media was founded by David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

With Skydance, David Ellison has collaborated with a number of Hollywood studios and streaming services to produce a rich catalog of films. Skydance has also expanded into games and is working with Marvel Entertainment to release a game next year. In his catalog, David Ellison focuses primarily on big-budget films.

On the other hand, her sister Megan Ellison is involved in a wide range of mid-budget art films. The younger Ellison also owns her own company, Annapurna Pictures, an independent media company. A look at Annapurna Pictures' portfolio reveals her involvement in many award-winning films: Her, Missing Link and Nimona.

Besides films, Annapurna also has a branch that produces, develops and distributes video games: Annapurna Interactive. Annapurna Interactive is well known and respected in the video game world, having produced a number of award-winning games.

Unfortunately, due to its popularity in the video game space, Annapurna Pictures has not been as active in film production in recent years, causing most companies to move away from the film side of the business. However, Megan Ellison appears to be making a comeback with Nimona , which has received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature in 2024.

With David Ellison Skydance Media merging with Paramount Pictures and Megan Ellison returning to finance films, it looks like the Ellison name will become an increasingly important player in the entertainment industry.