Skydance to sit atop new Paramount-Warner Bros. empire

David Ellison made it official Friday: the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. company will be called Skydance, TheWrap reports.

Ellison said preserving the Paramount and Warner Bros. names is the plan. Audiences won't suddenly see a Skydance movie instead of a Warner Bros. or Paramount film. But the parent company itself will carry Ellison's own brand, not a merger of the two studios that defined Hollywood for generations.

The decision comes as the merger moves closer to closing. A federal judge approved Paramount's settlement with 12 state attorneys general, clearing the way for the $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition. Wall Street banks completed a roughly $52 billion debt sale tied to the deal. Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz will join Ellison as co-CEO, and HBO's Casey Bloys is expected to oversee the combined streaming business.

Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy are out. They learned from press reports Thursday night that they wouldn't join the merged company, TheWrap reports. Ellison called each of them Friday morning to confirm. The conversations were tense, with Abdy telling Ellison: "Good luck to you. I left you 39 movies."

Ellison has asked CNN CEO Mark Thompson to stay and is discussing a new contract with him, according to TheWrap. CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss is not expected to have editorial or operational oversight of CNN when the deal closes.

Skydance will carry roughly $80 billion in debt and is targeting $6 billion in cost savings. The streaming services, film studios, TV operations and national news organizations give it extraordinary reach. They also create duplication and expensive infrastructure that will almost certainly have to change.

For now, the name tells the story. Paramount and Warner Bros. will remain recognizable brands. The Skydance era has begun.