Skydance CEO David Ellison has told employees of the newly combined -Warner Bros. Discovery company that the $110 billion merger marks the beginning of an ambitious new phase for the media giant, while acknowledging that the integration will involve difficult decisions and changes for staff.
Speaking at the company’s first town hall on Tuesday, Ellison thanked Warner Bros. Discovery employees for joining the new organisation and Paramount staff for their patience during the lengthy merger process. His remarks came hours after he and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz announced that the deal had officially closed.
Ellison welcomes employees after $110 billion merger
Ellison addressed employees at 1 p.m. ET at an internal meeting, according to an audio recording obtained by Business Insider. Bruno Mars’ “I Just Might” played shortly before he took the stage.
“This is an incredibly exciting day,” Ellison said. “I want to start with the most important thing I can say to all of you: Thank you.”
He described the moment as humbling and reflected on the lengthy process that led Paramount to acquire WBD. According to Ellison, the transaction was the result of a strategy that had been developing for three years.
“it is humbling to be in this room,” Ellison said.
“It was not easy to get here. At times, it was downright ugly,” he said, while adding that he would “do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
Four priorities outlined for combined company
According to the Business Insider’s report, Ellison and Kreiz laid out four key priorities in a memo to employees: strengthening storytelling, making the company more technologically capable, becoming a leader in an increasingly competitive market and earning the trust of employees and audiences.
The merged business will bring together major entertainment brands and assets, including Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto TV and Discovery+, as well as television networks such as CBS, CNN, HBO, HGTV, TLC and Discovery Channel.
“For the first time, we have the studios, the franchises, the libraries, the talent and scale all under one roof to compete with anyone in the world,” Ellison said.
Ellison says Paramount-WBD will compete with tech giants
The Skydance CEO said the combined company’s size gives it the ability to challenge some of the world’s biggest media businesses, but stressed that expanding its scale was not the main objective of the merger.
“We didn’t do this deal simply to get bigger,” Ellison said. He added that “we’re going to invest aggressively in great storytelling.”
The company will compete against traditional entertainment giants such as Disney and Netflix, while also facing technology companies including Amazon and Google’s YouTube for consumers’ time and attention.
“We’re not just competing with traditional media companies anymore,” Ellison said. “We’re competing for people’s time and attention with some of the largest and most sophisticated technology companies in the world, companies with enormous scale, global reach, and virtually unlimited resources.”
Ellison also said technology would play a central role in the new company’s strategy.
Skydance is “going to embrace technology — not just as a buzzword or as a side project, but as a fundamental capability of this company,” he said.
Layoffs and job changes remain a concern
The merger has left employees at both Paramount and WBD concerned about potential job losses and internal competition as the two businesses are integrated.
Ellison has previously told investors that the deal could result in $6 billion in cost savings. The company has said that layoffs would not account for most of those savings.
During the town hall, Ellison acknowledged that employees should expect changes.
“Bringing together two companies of this size and complexity will require difficult decisions,” he said. “There will be changes, and there will be impacts. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. What I can promise you is that we will move through those decisions as quickly and thoughtfully as we can.”
Kreiz will oversee the integration of the two businesses and manage their day-to-day operations, while Ellison will focus on the company’s creative and technology strategies.
“We are not here to preserve the status quo. We are here to build for what comes next,” Ellison said.