Yesterday, the FCC gave Paramount Global and Skydance Media approval to move ahead with their merger. Today, the two companies have shared that the anticipated closing date of the deal is August 7, 2025.
In Friday’s announcement, Paramount and Skydance also said that stock shares for the “New Paramount” will begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “PSKY” following the closing of the deal. At that time, shares of Paramount’s Class B common stock “PARA” and Class A common stock “PARAA” will no longer be listed for trading.
After a bumpy road to get the merge approved, the FCC gave Paramount and Skydance the go ahead yesterday, under a few conditions. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent out a press release saying that Skydance will not have diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and will use an ombudsman to handle complaints of bias.
FCC approval came just weeks after Paramount settled a lawsuit with President Trump for $16 million, over a “60 Minutes” episode that Trump claimed used “deceptive editing” to favor his 2024 election opponent Kamala Harris. Trump was seeking $20 billion in damages. Paramount says that the settlement was “completely separate and unrelated” to the merger approval.
The FCC announcement Thursday was followed by a statement from democratic FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, who said the FCC “is now imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.”