Skydance Media

Skydance was a leading independent Hollywood production company and co-financier, best known for its blockbuster partnership with Paramount Pictures before merging with Paramount in 2025.

Skydance Media was an independent media and entertainment company founded in 2010 by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The company established itself as a major force in Hollywood through a long-standing co-production partnership with Paramount Pictures, collaborating on some of the highest-grossing franchises of the 2010s and early 2020s, including Top Gun: Maverick, the Mission: Impossible series, Terminator: Genisys, and Star Trek Beyond. Skydance also expanded into television, animation, and interactive entertainment, producing content across multiple formats and platforms. Beyond film and television, Skydance built out divisions in animation (Skydance Animation, responsible for projects like Luck and Spellbound) and interactive (Skydance Interactive, known for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners VR series), demonstrating ambitions to become a diversified media company rather than a pure-play film producer. The company was backed by significant private equity and strategic investment, including from RedBird Capital Partners and the Ellison family, giving it the financial firepower to pursue large-scale productions and acquisitions. In 2024, Skydance entered into a landmark merger agreement with Paramount Global, culminating in the formal completion of the deal on August 7, 2025, when Skydance Media merged into Paramount to create 'Paramount, A Skydance Corporation' (ticker: PSKY). With this merger, Skydance as a standalone independent entity ceased to exist, with David Ellison assuming the role of Chairman and CEO of the combined company. The merger marked the end of Skydance's independent chapter and the beginning of a new era for the storied Paramount brand under Ellison's leadership.