A $100 billion media megadeal closed on Tuesday after a last-minute attempt to block it at the US Supreme Court fell flat.
And it has created a streaming and entertainment giant that will take on Netflix and Disney with a roster running from HBO to SpongeBob SquarePants.
The new company, trading as Skydance (SKYD), brings together the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery empires.
In doing so, it has united HBO Max and Paramount+ under one roof along with television networks CBS, CNN, TNT, TBS, Nickelodeon and MTV.
David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, will serve as co-CEO alongside former Mattel chief executive Ynon Kreiz, who only stepped down from the toymaker last week.
Ellison takes the long-term strategy and creative vision brief while Kreiz handles the day-to-day, which, given the scale of the integration ahead, is no small task.
The deal nearly didn't happen, settling antitrust objections from a dozen US states, including California, only weeks ago, with the combined company agreeing to release at least 30 films in cinemas each year or face penalties of $30 million per film short of the target.
Departing Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav walks away with a rather comfortable parting gift of around $886.8 million.
Analysts expect the new entity to become a major global streaming rival with the breadth of content and library scale to genuinely take the fight to Netflix and Disney.
Whether the numbers stack up is another question entirely.
