Skydance employees say the mood inside the newly formed company is tense as leaders begin planning how to fold together two long-standing Hollywood studios and a raft of television and news assets into a single organisation.
"It feels like the calm before the storm," an executive at Skydance said, adding that while David Ellison "has got what he wanted, but now there is a price to pay." The warning reflects staff concerns that the merger will prompt a wave of cost-cutting measures and job losses as the business seeks to eliminate overlap and extract efficiencies.
The $110bn transaction, completed earlier this month, merged Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery into a single media empire under the Skydance banner. The combined group brings together two studios with histories stretching more than a century, premium cable and streaming brands such as HBO, legacy cable channels including MTV and Discovery, and major news outlets including CBS and CNN.
Executives and employees said attention is now shifting from deal-making to integration. Combining disparate corporate cultures, consolidating duplicate departments and unifying creative and distribution strategies are among the practical challenges the new management must address. Staff at multiple levels are reported to be bracing for restructuring as the company maps out a path to profitability and scale.
Industry observers say that large mergers of this kind typically lead to significant cost-savings programmes that can result in staff reductions, particularly in overlapping administrative and production functions. At the same time, the size and complexity of the new group mean that preserving key creative talent and maintaining the distinct identities of established brands will be essential if Skydance hopes to retain audiences and advertisers.
While the deal creates one of the largest global entertainment and news conglomerates, internal sources and external commentators say the broader battle over strategy — from streaming economics to newsroom independence — is likely to continue as the company moves from acquisition to operation. For now, employees at Skydance report a mix of relief that the transaction is complete and anxiety about what the next phase will mean for their jobs and for the future shape of the business.