David Ferris Ellison
Chairman and CEO at paramount skydance corporation
David Ellison is chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance Corporation, a role he assumed when the $8B Skydance-Paramount merger closed August 7, 2025. Son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, he founded Skydance in 2006 and built it into the studio behind Top Gun: Maverick. In February 2026 he agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for ~$110B; WBD shareholders approved the deal April 23, 2026.
Ellison is the operator at the center of the largest wave of U.S. studio consolidation in a generation. Inside eight months of taking over Paramount, he moved from integrating the Skydance-Paramount combination to negotiating a $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — a deal that, if it closes on its targeted Q3 2026 schedule, would fold Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, Discovery, Paramount Pictures, CBS, and Showtime under a single corporate roof.
For ad buyers and the streaming-distribution market, the throughline is scale. Paramount Skydance’s upfront posture, Pluto TV’s FAST footprint, and Paramount+‘s SVOD/AVOD mix all sit downstream of Ellison’s capital-allocation choices and his stated intent to compete head-to-head with Netflix and Disney at the global-content-spend tier. Coverage on this site tracks his moves where they touch streaming distribution, advertising, or measurement — not the broader film-slate or talent-deal beat.
Recent coverage
Elsewhere
- A Message From Our Chairman and CEO
- Skydance Media and Paramount Global Complete Merger, Creating Next Generation Media Company
- Paramount To Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery To Form Next-Generation Global Media and Entertainment Company
- Paramount CEO David Ellison's Pay in 2025 Was $63.2 Million
- Paramount's David Ellison Addresses Warner Bros. Execs at Town Hall
- Paramount Skydance Merger Finally Closes
- David Ellison