Paramount Skydance to Become Skydance on 6 October as the Warner Bros. Discovery Deal Nears Close
Paramount Skydance said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 2 October that it intends to change its name to Skydance Corporation and its Class B ticker from PSKY to SKYD, both expected on 6 October, when it also plans to move the listing of those shares from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange. The company has said its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to close the same day, subject to customary closing conditions. Chairman and Chief Executive David Ellison announced the name in a social media post the same day, writing, per CNBC, “Together, we are Skydance.”
What Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders receive
In a filing on 1 October, the company said each Warner Bros. Discovery share will convert into 31.00 dollars in cash plus about 0.0028 dollars for each calendar day after 30 September up to closing. A 6 October closing would pay 31.01666668 dollars a share. On our calculation, that daily increment is worth about 1.01 dollars a share over a full year, roughly 3.3 percent of the 31 dollar base, and 6 days of it come to less than 0.02 dollars a share.
Paramount Skydance merger figures
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Cash per Warner Bros. Discovery share, base | $31.00 |
| Cash per share at a 6 October closing | $31.01666668 |
| Expected run-rate synergies | More than $6 billion |
| Senior secured notes offerings | $41.4 billion and €885 million |
| Term loan B priced | $8.5 billion and €850 million |
| Annual value of the daily increment per share | About $1.01 |
The last row is our calculation from the filed daily amount of 0.00277778 dollars a share.
What the company has set out
In a 30 September release, Paramount Skydance said Ynon Kreiz, Mattel’s chairman and chief executive since 2018, will become co-chief executive of the merged company at closing. He joins Paramount on 5 October and will also join the board, while Ellison stays chairman and chief executive. The company expects the transaction to produce more than 6 billion dollars in run-rate synergies and a streaming platform with more than 200 million global subscribers. Ellison said the name lets Paramount and Warner Bros. stay distinct studios under a corporate identity of its own.
Why it matters: The merger puts Paramount and Warner Bros., which Ellison said shaped over a century of culture, under one company with a streaming business it aims to take past 200 million subscribers. With more than 6 billion dollars of synergies promised and a large debt package arranged, on our reading the synergy target is the number investors will hold management to.
Outlook: Kreiz starts on Monday, and the name change, the ticker change, the move to the New York Stock Exchange and the closing are all expected the next day. Once the deal closes, the test is whether the company’s first disclosures as Skydance set a timetable for the more than 6 billion dollars of synergies.
Sources: Paramount Skydance, CNBC, The Edge.
