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Skydance has two CEOs and one principal executive officer.
The $110 billion Paramount Skydance takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery closed October 6; David Zaslav left at close with no board or advisory role. David Ellison stays Chairman and CEO over strategy, creative, technology and capital allocation. Ynon Kreiz, brought in from Mattel, Inc. after resigning as CEO and director October 2, runs day-to-day operations and integration as Co-CEO.
The appointment filing, an 8-K, states Ellison "will remain the sole principal executive officer," the officer who certifies the financial statements. Kreiz's contract adds: he reports solely and directly to the Board. Unresolved disagreements with Ellison go to the Board, whose decision prevails. The Ellison family and RedBird hold 100% of the voting shares.
Kreiz's pay names no synergy or leverage metric: 75% of the bonus rests on company and individual targets the Board sets. His 2,625,000 fully vested signing restricted stock units have a 12-month holding period.
Net debt is $78.9 billion. Pro forma 2025 interest expense is $6.4 billion. Promised: more than $6 billion of run-rate synergies. So a year of interest is roughly the target.
Mattel posted a $343 million operating loss in 2017, the year before Kreiz arrived. By 2024 it earned $694 million of operating income on net sales up from $4.88 billion to $5.38 billion. Cost repair is proven; growth is not. He left with second-quarter Barbie gross billings down 16% and Ariel and Southeastern pressing for strategic alternatives or a sale.
We map an incoming leader's operating record, the authority structure in the filings and the incentive design against the company's hardest challenge. Either the split will give every cut one owner, or both CEOs will spend year one escalating to the Board.
What will be the impact when Kreiz and Ellison disagree and the Board decides?
🔗 Source: David Ellison Names Ynon Kreiz as Paramount-WBD Co-CEO
