David Ellison is officially the CEO of Paramount Skydance. After a successful Paramount merger, next on his wish list is Warner Bros. Discovery — and he’s launched a hostile takeover bid in an effort to scoop it out from Netflix’s hands.
The 42-year-old founded Skydance back in 2006 with some help from his father Larry Ellison, the Oracle cofounder who’s worth $277 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Since then, Skydance has enjoyed considerable success with films including “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and “Baywatch,” and a total box office haul of more than $8 billion. The merger deal valued Skydance at $4.75 billion.
Its biggest hit has been “Top Gun: Maverick,” which became the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 after making almost $1.5 billion worldwide.
After seeing the original “Top Gun” as a child, David Ellison became obsessed with flying. His billionaire father bought him a plane at the age of 13 and they took flying lessons together. By 17, Ellison had begun competing in air shows performing aerial acrobatics.
He gave up flying competitively after starting a film degree at USC that he later dropped out of, Ellison told Kara Swisher in an episode of The New York Times’ “Sway” podcast.
Before becoming an entertainment executive, though, Ellison had a brief foray as an actor.
In 2006, he appeared in a Skydance film called “Flyboys,” about American pilots who flew for the French Air Force in World War I.
The movie cost about $65 million, but flopped after taking just $18 million or so, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Merging with Paramount and becoming CEO
Since moving behind the camera, Ellison’s company has had a relationship with Paramount that dates back to 2011 when Skydance co-financed Joel and Ethan Coen’s “True Grit” with the studio.
The film was both a critical and commercial success, winning 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and taking about $200 million at the box office.
Ellison’s sister, Megan, is also in the movie game. Her production company Annapurna Pictures was behind releases including “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Her,” “American Hustle,” and “Phantom Thread,” all of which received Oscar nominations.
The $8 billion tie-up of Skydance and Paramount officially closed in August. Ellison named himself chairman and CEO of the newly combined company, Paramount Skydance.
Soon after taking the helm, Ellison led Paramount Skydance through layoffs, which can be common in the wake of a merger. The company laid off 1,000 employees in October and said that more cuts were coming. Six hundred employees took severance packages and quit instead of returning to the office, it said.
Ellison has also installed Bari Weiss at the top of CBS News. Weiss left The New York Times Opinion section in 2020 and later built the The Free Press, which Paramount Skydance acquired for about $150 million.
Ellison continued his spending run. He brought in Netflix veteran Cindy Holland and shelled out $7.7 billion for UFC rights.
“Everywhere you look, he’s throwing money,” LightShed Partners media analyst Rich Greenfield told Business Insider. “That’s what Hollywood gets excited about.”
Ellison hopes to steal Netflix’s thunder with hostile WBD bid
Now, Ellison has his eye on another acquisition: Warner Bros. Discovery.
Paramount Skydance had earlier entered a competitive bid against Netflix and Comcast to acquire the company.
Warner Bros. Discovery ultimately accepted Netflix’s bid to purchase the company’s streaming and studio business for $72 billion.
Ellison is now fighting to stop that from happening. On December 8, Paramount Skydance launched a hostile bid for WBD, offering to pay shareholders $30 per share for the entire company.
That morning, Ellison made his case to shareholders and WBD’s board on CNBC.
“We have faster regulatory certainty to close,” Ellison said. He called the deal “pro-consumer, pro-creative talent,” and “pro-competition.”
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