After an intense, scandal-plagued acquisition, here's what David Ellison gets in Skydance's acquisition of Paramount Global.

Paramount’s cable business has cratered. The news division is in turmoil. A.I. is coming for movies. And those are just the obvious challenges facing David Ellison as he takes control.

Paramount co-CEOs George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy expressed their thanks to the media giant's staff following news that its pending $8 billion merger with Skydance Media is expected to close Aug.

Upon the deal’s closing, Skydance and its financial partners are set inject $1.5 billion in cash into Paramount. However, that’s intended to go toward reducing Paramount’s long-term debt ($14.16 billion as of Q1 of 2025) to help stabilize its balance sheet.

After the FCC approved Paramount Global's merger with Skydance, several pressing questions will confront the management of the combined company.

The Larry Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners are expected to take control of Paramount in the coming days. David Ellison, 42, will serve as chairman and chief executive.

Two lawsuits filed this month claim that the Global-owned company fostered a hostile work environment in which a marketing exec harassed and assaulted workers.

After his advances were rebuffed, Smith allegedly retaliated by orchestrating a significant demotion of the account handled by the accuser’s ad agency despite the company being one of the most competitive vendors due to its pricing, the lawsuit claims.