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After two years of aggressive dealmaking, David Ellison is handing day-to-day leadership of the newly merged media giant to a well-known industry operator. Ynon Kreiz, the outgoing CEO of Mattel, will join Ellison as co‑CEO of the combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery — to be called Skydance — when the merger closes this week.
What the new company will include
The merged entity brings together major film studios, broadcast and cable networks, and two streaming platforms under a single corporate roof. That roster includes Paramount and Warner Bros. studios, the CBS broadcast network, pay‑TV channels such as CNN, TNT, MTV and BET, and the streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max.
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Ellison, who built Skydance from a production company into a buyer of legacy assets, will focus on long‑term strategy, creative direction, technology and capital allocation, while Kreiz is expected to run daily operations and lead the integration, the company said when announcing the appointment.
Why Kreiz was chosen
Kreiz is a media veteran with roughly three decades of experience, including earlier leadership roles at Maker Studios and Endemol and a hand in building children’s programming in Europe. He gained renewed attention for overseeing the release of the 2023 film “Barbie,” which grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide.
Analysts say Kreiz’s track record of operational restructuring at Mattel is the key reason for his hiring. During his eight‑year tenure at the toymaker, he cut costs, simplified the product line, reworked the supply chain and reduced headcount — moves that focused Mattel on cash generation and deleveraging.
“We view the appointment of Ynon Kreiz positively,” Matthew Condon, an analyst at Citizens Bank, wrote in a research note, adding that Kreiz’s emphasis on brands and intellectual property could help integrate the combined business. Other analysts offered a more measured view: Morningstar’s Matthew Dolgin called Kreiz an experienced operator but suggested his role would functionally resemble a chief operating officer.
Mixed results at Mattel
Kreiz’s film strategy at Mattel — creating an in‑house studio to convert toys into movies and drive product sales — produced a blockbuster in “Barbie.” Yet most box office returns flowed to studio partners; Mattel disclosed about a $150 million revenue boost in fiscal 2023 tied to the film, and some estimates put incremental operating profit at roughly $90 million that year.
Critics say the entertainment push sometimes came at the expense of core product innovation. Morningstar senior analyst Jaime Katz noted Mattel’s stock rose into the mid‑$20s under Kreiz but later retreated to about $15 per share. Gerrick Johnson of Seaport Research Partners acknowledged Kreiz’s swift cost reductions — including roughly $1 billion of cuts and the elimination of thousands of SKUs — but warned that top‑line growth and margins had since stagnated.
Integration and financial stakes
The merger that creates Skydance was large in scale: Ellison’s Paramount purchase closed for about $8 billion in August 2025, and his subsequent campaign for Warner Bros. Discovery resulted in a transaction valued at about $110 billion on an enterprise basis. The combined company expects to seek $6 billion in cost savings within three years of closing, while assuming roughly $79 billion of debt.
Those targets carry operational and regulatory constraints. As part of a settlement to resolve an antitrust lawsuit, the company agreed to release at least 30 theatrical films in 2027 and 2028, and at least 32 films per year from 2029 through 2031. Skydance also committed to a five‑year ban on writer layoffs at CBS’s broadcast operation.
Yet local impact studies have flagged potential job losses. A report from the Los Angeles Department of Economic Opportunity estimated that about 4,500 film and television jobs in the county could be at risk over a three‑year integration period.
What comes next
Kreiz is set to join the new company on Monday and assume the co‑CEO title when the deal closes on Tuesday. Ellison and Kreiz announced their broader leadership team the day they revealed the appointment.
Analysts say the pair face a difficult task: melding large content libraries, rationalizing overlapping operations and meeting theatrical output commitments while reducing costs and managing a heavy debt load. “He’s got a big task ahead of him,” Eric Handler of Roth Capital Partners said, noting the scale of the integration and the financial pressures it entails.
