It’s official: Skydance Media’s deal to purchase CBS parent company Paramount Global for $8 billion is complete, and incoming chairman / CEO David Ellison’s first order of business is a massive restructuring. In an open letter about his plans for Paramount, a Skydance Corporation (the merged companies’ new name), Ellison announced that, going forward, the business will be split into three distinct units: studios, direct-to-consumer, and TV media. And beginning next year, the company plans to move Paramount Plus and Pluto TV onto “a unified technology stack” to boost performance and cut operational costs. As Variety notes, closing the new deal cleared the way for Larry Ellison, Skydance, and RedBird Capital to buy out all of Paramount chairwoman Shari Redstone’s shares in National Amusements Inc. (NAI), which was the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global. It was clear that the FCC would not sign off on the Paramount / Skydance merger until Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the company over claims that CBS News edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris in a way that misled voters during the 2024 elections.