The newly christened Skydance (SKYD) debuted on the New York Stock Exchange this morning after switching from the NASDAQ — where both Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance, were previously listed.

And later today, David Ellison and his new executive team, including co-CEO Ynon Kriez, will introduce themselves to the world and formally begin the arduous task of selling this merger to a skeptical creative community and to Wall Street bankers eager to understand how the new mega-studio can cut into its mountain of debt totaling roughly $80 billion.

Reporters and cameramen will converge at Paramount’s lot on Melrose for a press conference, shortly after CFO Dennis Cinelli holds a call with Wall Street analysts. 

One veteran Wall Street analyst observed that Ellison has been far more guarded this time around about his plans for Warner Bros. than he was after acquiring Paramount in 2025.

“They got slapped on the wrist by the FCC because regulators are unamused if you act like you’re going to own something before they told you you could,” Needam and Co.’s Laura Martin said. “[Today] is the first day where they can actually start telling us what the hell they’re going to do.”

Part of the plan has been trickling out in recent days. Warner Bros. film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are out as is former streaming boss Cindy Holland. Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg are in as the heads of the newly combined studio while Casey Bloys will run the streaming business. George Cheeks will lead the TV networks (with JB Perrette running the business side of both), and James Gunn and Peter Safran will continue to run DC Studios. 

No one expects Ellison — who has gone from head of a moderately-sized studio to one of the most powerful people in Hollywood in less than 18 months — to unveil exactly how he plans to turn Skydance into, per his words, a “next-generation global media company.”

So can Ellison ease the concerns of an understandably jittery community who hear the term “$6 billion in cost synergies” and wonder if that means them. Stay tuned…