Ellison Tells Warner Bros. Executives the Turbulent $111 Billion Deal Is Finally Behind Them

David Ellison stood before roughly 150 to 200 senior Warner Bros. Discovery executives at the Steven J. Ross Theatre on Warner's Burbank lot Tuesday, delivering a formal introduction that drew both cautious optimism and open skepticism as his $111 billion acquisition of the company moves through its final stretch.

Introduced onstage by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Ellison framed the long and complicated deal process as a closed chapter. He described it as "turbulent" but insisted it was "now behind us," setting a tone of forward momentum for a room that has spent months watching two rival bids for their company play out on the front pages. Zaslav and Ellison also paused to salute CNN staffers covering the war in Iran before the session began.

The Paramount Skydance CEO, dressed in jeans and a dark polo shirt, spoke for roughly 45 minutes and fielded about a dozen questions, many submitted anonymously by executives in attendance. More than 300 additional Warner employees watched via webcast from U.S. and international locations.

Ellison projected "upwards of $6 billion" in cost savings from the merger and insisted that "most of the cost synergies would not come from layoffs." He declined, however, to estimate how many jobs would be cut, repeatedly citing legal restrictions on pre-closing coordination, known as "gun-jumping" prohibitions, as the reason he could not offer more concrete forward-looking details. The explanation became a recurring theme throughout the session.

On theatrical, Ellison was unambiguous about his ambitions. He outlined a combined slate of 30 films per year, combining 16 from the Paramount lot and 14 from Warner Bros., a pace that impressed some and alarmed others. One attendee noted that Warner Bros. production currently runs on a small staff, raising questions about whether the company could execute at that volume. Ellison also referenced DC Studios twice, with one attendee summarizing the impression simply: "He loves DC."

He praised the motion picture group led by Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy with characteristic restraint. "You've made two of the best movies from last year," he told the executives. "I won't tell you which one."

On streaming, Ellison stopped short of offering a blueprint for how HBO Max and Paramount+ would be combined, saying he wanted to "talk to the teams at both companies about what the merged streaming business would look like." He did not hesitate when it came to HBO's status, calling it the "gold standard" in television. After the town hall, Ellison met privately for lunch with HBO chairman and CEO Casey Bloys.

The reaction inside the room was sharply divided. One Warner executive described Ellison as "pretty honest and direct," adding, "He came off as genuine." Others were considerably less convinced. A person who attended told The Hollywood Reporter bluntly: "We don't believe him." A separate attendee characterized the session as "perfunctory," describing Ellison as "full of platitudes and not much more," and said he "really didn't read the room" while sidestepping substantive discussion of job cuts.

The mixed reception reflects the scale of anxiety inside a company being absorbed into an empire that would combine Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, HBO, CBS, CNN and dozens of other brands under the Ellison family's control. Ellison won the bid after Warner's board judged his offer superior to a competing proposal from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who had addressed the same executive ranks back in December.

The practical work of integration, including decisions about streaming structure, leadership and staffing, remains legally off-limits until the deal closes.