Paramount Skydance (PSKY) Stock Tumbles as Netflix Wins Warner Bros. Deal – Latest News, Forecasts and Analysis (Dec. 5, 2025)

Paramount Skydance Corporation’s Class B shares (NASDAQ: PSKY) were hit hard on Friday, December 5, 2025, sliding almost 10% as investors digested confirmation that Netflix – not Paramount Skydance – will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets in a mega‑deal valued at roughly $72–83 billion, depending on how debt is counted. ^[1]

As of late Friday trading, PSKY was changing hands around $13.37, down about 9.8% on the day, with intraday volume above 27 million shares – several times normal levels. The stock now trades near the middle of its 52‑week range of roughly $9.95 to $20.86, leaving it well below its 2025 highs despite a strong rebound earlier in the year. ^[2]

Below is a detailed look at what changed on December 5, how the Netflix–Warner Bros. deal reshapes the story for Paramount Skydance, and what the latest forecasts and analyst calls say about PSKY stock.

Key Takeaways for PSKY on December 5, 2025

PSKY fell ~10% after Netflix won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio assets, sidelining Paramount Skydance’s own takeover ambitions – at least for now. ^[3]
Paramount Skydance reportedly offered $30 per WBD share, more than Netflix’s winning offer on a per‑share basis, and is now considering more aggressive tactics, including a potential hostile bid. ^[4]
The company is still loss‑making but posted Q3 2025 streaming profits and raised its cost‑savings target to $3 billion, while guiding for streaming profitability in 2025 and much higher operating income in 2026. ^[5]
Wall Street’s view is cautious: most brokerages rate the stock Sell/Reduce, with an average 12‑month price target around $13.91, only slightly above current levels. ^[6]
Independent valuation models are split: Simply Wall St’s cash‑flow model sees PSKY as 23% undervalued, while WallStreetZen’s DCF suggests the shares are more than 100% overvalued relative to its fair‑value estimate. ^[7]
Quant and technical services are similarly divided: CoinCodex projects strong upside over the next year, while StockInvest.us flags PSKY as a short‑term sell candidate with further downside risk. ^[8]

1. What Paramount Skydance Is Today: A New‑Look Media Giant

Paramount Skydance Corporation was formed on August 7, 2025, when Paramount Global closed its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media after clearing regulatory hurdles at the FCC and elsewhere. ^[9]

The combined entity now trades under the ticker PSKY on the Nasdaq and operates through three broad segments:

TV Media – CBS broadcast network; international free‑to‑air networks (e.g., Network 10 in Australia, Channel 5 in the U.K.); and cable brands such as Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount Network and Showtime. ^[10]
Direct‑to‑Consumer (DTC) – the streaming portfolio led by Paramount+, Pluto TV, and BET+. ^[11]
Filmed Entertainment / Studios – Paramount Pictures, animation banners, Skydance film and TV, and other production units, distributing content across theaters, TV, digital and streaming. ^[12]

CEO David Ellison has framed the new Paramount Skydance as a “tech‑forward” content company, leaning heavily into streaming, live sports and data‑driven advertising, while aggressively cutting costs in legacy linear TV. ^[13]

2. Why PSKY Stock Dropped Nearly 10% on December 5

Netflix wins the Warner Bros. Discovery prize

After weeks of speculation and multiple rounds of bids from Paramount Skydance, Netflix and Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) agreed on December 5 to sell its studio and streaming businesses – including Warner Bros. film and TV studios, HBO/HBO Max and a deep TV library – to Netflix.

Different outlets peg the transaction’s value at about $72–82.7 billion, depending on whether debt and earn‑outs are included. ^[14] Warner Bros.’ cable channels such as CNN, TNT and TBS will be spun into a separate entity, often referred to as “Discovery Global”, before closing, currently targeted for Q3 2026. ^[15]

Paramount Skydance reportedly:

Offered $30 per WBD share to acquire the entire company, including its linear TV assets. ^[16]
Earlier boosted the breakup fee in its proposal to $5 billion, signalling confidence that regulators would ultimately approve a Paramount–WBD tie‑up. ^[17]

But WBD’s board opted for the Netflix bid, which is mostly cash and focuses on studios/streaming rather than cable, a structure some directors view as cleaner and easier to sell to investors. ^[18]

Market reaction: Netflix and PSKY both punished

Investors immediately repriced all three companies involved in the bidding war:

Paramount Skydance (PSKY): Shares fell around 8–10% on Friday, with multiple outlets highlighting the stock as one of the day’s bigger losers. ^[19]
Netflix (NFLX): Despite “winning”, Netflix shares also traded lower (down around 3%) amid concerns the company may be overpaying and taking on significant integration and regulatory risk. ^[20]
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD): The target’s stock rose as investors priced in the takeover premium. ^[21]

Short articles from StockStory, Benzinga, AInvest and Yahoo Finance all point to the same core drivers for PSKY’s slide:

Loss of a potentially transformative acquisition that could have boosted Paramount’s scale and IP library. TechStock²+1
Renewed focus on Paramount’s own leverage and execution risks without WBD’s assets to justify bigger bets. ^[22]
A broader risk‑off reaction to mega‑deals in streaming, with investors increasingly demanding free cash flow over headline growth. ^[23]

At a basic level, the market spent weeks pricing in the possibility that Paramount Skydance might emerge from the auction as an enlarged rival to Netflix and Disney. Now that Netflix has instead secured HBO and Warner Bros., PSKY is trading down as that “big‑bang” narrative goes into limbo. ^[24]

3. Paramount Skydance’s Position After Losing WBD: Weaker – or Safer?

The key debate for PSKY investors now is whether losing WBD:

Hurts Paramount Skydance by leaving it smaller and less diversified than Netflix or Disney, or
Helps by preventing it from taking on even more debt and integration risk at a time when its own turnaround is still early.

Paramount’s “unfair sale process” complaint

Paramount Skydance hasn’t simply walked away. It has:

Sent a letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav, accusing Warner Bros. of running a “tilted and unfair” sale process that favored Netflix. ^[25]
Argued that its all‑company bid – including cable networks – would enhance competition and might actually be easier to pass regulatory review than Netflix’s consolidation of two major global streamers. ^[26]
Been reported as considering a hostile approach, potentially going directly to WBD shareholders with a tender offer if the Netflix deal bogs down in regulatory or political opposition. ^[27]

Regulators and lawmakers are already scrutinizing the Netflix–WBD combination, with concerns that combining Netflix’s global streaming scale with HBO’s prestige franchises could raise substantial antitrust and media‑plurality issues. ^[28]

If, in a more speculative scenario, regulators were to delay, restrict or block the deal, Paramount might get another shot at WBD or at least benefit from a less Netflix‑dominated streaming market. But right now, that’s an option value, not the base case. TechStock²+1

4. Under the Hood: Q3 Earnings, Streaming Momentum and Debt

While the WBD news dominated headlines, PSKY’s fundamentals still drive its medium‑term valuation.

Q3 2025: First quarter post‑merger

In its first earnings report since closing the Skydance deal, Paramount Skydance delivered mixed numbers for Q3 2025: ^[29]

Revenue:
- About $6.7 billion, roughly flat year‑over‑year and slightly below Wall Street expectations (~$6.99B). ^[30]
Net income:
- Net loss of $257 million, versus a small profit a year earlier.
- Adjusted loss of $0.12 per share, missing analysts’ consensus for positive earnings. ^[31]
Segment performance:
- TV Media revenue fell 12% to $3.8B on softer advertising and affiliate fees, underlining the structural drag from cord‑cutting.
- Streaming (DTC) revenue rose 17% to $2.17B, with Paramount+ revenue up 24% and a streaming profit of ~$340M, up sharply from $49M a year ago.
- Filmed Entertainment revenue grew 30% to $756M, but the segment swung to a loss due to a weaker film slate. ^[32]
Subscribers:
- Paramount+ ended the quarter with 79.1 million subscribers, up 1.4M in the quarter; free‑trial subs will be excluded from reported totals starting Q4. ^[33]

Guidance and cost‑cutting

Management’s forward‑looking guidance is aggressive: ^[34]

Q4 2025: Revenue of $8.1–8.3B and adjusted operating income of $500–600M.
Full‑year 2025: Streaming expected to be profitable, though Q4 will show a seasonal loss due to content timing.
2026: Targeting $30B revenue and $3.5B adjusted operating income, driven largely by streaming price hikes and cost efficiencies.
Cost savings:
- Raised cost‑savings target from $2B to $3B, with more than $1.4B expected to be realized by the end of 2025 and the rest by 2027 through layoffs, real estate consolidation and asset sales (e.g., Telefe and planned sale of Chilevisión).
Tech and integration:
- Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ are planned to move to a unified tech stack by mid‑2026, and the company is rolling out Oracle Fusion ERP and AI‑driven tools to improve targeting and efficiency. ^[35]

Balance sheet: still leveraged

Paramount Skydance remains heavily leveraged, though management insists that returning to investment‑grade metrics by 2027 is realistic:

Gross debt: Roughly $13.6–14.7B as of Q3 2025, depending on the data source. ^[36]
Cash: About $3.3B in cash and equivalents. ^[37]
Assets/Liabilities: WallStreetZen estimates total assets of $43.2B and liabilities of $29.9B, implying a debt‑to‑equity ratio around 2.5x – elevated but not extreme for a legacy media company. ^[38]

This leverage gives Paramount Skydance limited margin for error, and is a major reason analysts are uneasy about a massive acquisition like WBD on top of existing obligations. ^[39]

5. Strategic Growth Levers: Champions League Rights and Streaming Focus

Despite the WBD setback, Paramount Skydance has scored some important offensive wins.

Champions League: a multi‑billion‑euro bet on live sports

On November 21, 2025, Paramount Skydance won the majority of UEFA Champions League media rights in a record €10 billion (€11.5B) auction for the 2027–2031 cycle: ^[40]

Paramount+ will show most Champions League matches in the U.K. and Germany, extending a rights footprint that already includes U.S. coverage.
Amazon’s Prime Video secured one top‑tier match per week, while Comcast’s Sky and others took rights in remaining European markets. ^[41]

The deal gives Paramount+ a powerful live‑sports anchor in some of the world’s richest football markets – but it also raises long‑term content costs and execution risk if subscriber growth or ad monetization disappoints. TechStock²+1

Streaming consolidation and product roadmap

Management is betting that streaming scale + better tech can offset structural decline in linear TV: ^[42]

Moving Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ onto a single back‑end platform by mid‑2026.
Using AI and advanced ad‑tech to improve targeting and reduce churn.
Planning Paramount+ price increases in major markets in early 2026.
Continuing to invest in premium franchises (e.g., UFC rights, South Park, new film slates, and high‑profile series) to differentiate the content offering.

If this works, the DTC business could become a sustainable profit engine by 2026, helping fund content and debt reduction without relying on mega‑mergers. If it fails, Paramount risks being squeezed between Netflix/Disney at the top end and cheaper ad‑supported platforms at the value end.

6. What Wall Street Analysts Are Saying About PSKY

Consensus rating: Sell/Reduce

Across major analyst aggregators, the message is remarkably consistent: proceed with caution.

StockAnalysis.com:
- 11 analysts, consensus rating “Sell”.
- Average 12‑month price target: $13.91, implying only about 4% upside from current levels. ^[43]
MarketBeat:
- Consensus rating “Reduce” (equivalent to a soft Sell).
- Rating breakdown: 1 Buy, 5 Hold, 7 Sell.
- Average target also clustered near $13.91. ^[44]
Barchart / Zacks:
- Barchart’s composite rating sits around “Hold” (2.46/5) but reflects a skew toward Moderate Sell over earlier months. ^[45]
- Zacks reports an average brokerage recommendation of ~3.5 on a 1–5 scale (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), indicating a slight lean toward Sell. ^[46]

Overall, Wall Street sees limited upside and real execution risk, even if some brokers (like Wells Fargo and Benchmark) have issued more optimistic price targets in the $18–19 range based on merger synergies and streaming potential. TechStock²+1

7. Independent Valuations and Technical Forecasts: A Split Jury

Beyond traditional broker research, retail investors are leaning on valuation and technical platforms – and those views are far from unanimous.

Fundamental & DCF valuations

Simply Wall St
- Uses a two‑stage DCF plus a “Fair Price‑to‑Sales” framework.
- Estimates intrinsic value around $19.25 per share, implying PSKY is 23% undervalued at current prices. ^[47]
- Also notes a Price‑to‑Sales ratio near 0.57x, well below both media sector and peer averages, bolstering its “Undervalued with moderate growth potential” label. ^[48]
WallStreetZen
- Estimates fair value at roughly $7.12 using its own DCF approach, implying PSKY is overvalued by more than 100% at ~$14–15 per share. ^[49]
- Flags a debt‑to‑equity ratio of ~2.5x, which weighs on its safety and valuation scores.

This stark disagreement underscores how sensitive media valuations are to assumptions about:

Long‑term streaming margins
The pace of linear TV decline
Cost of content and sports rights
Interest rates and refinancing risk

Quant and technical forecasts

StockInvest.us (technical analysis)
- Notes PSKY fell 9.82% on December 5, closing at $13.37 after trading between $13.20 and $14.41.
- Labels PSKY as a “Sell candidate” based on moving‑average crossovers and a recent pivot top, projecting a possible ~18% further decline over the next three months, with a 90% probability range of $9.46–$13.71. ^[50]
CoinCodex (algorithmic forecast)
- Short‑term forecast suggests PSKY could rise about 25% to $18.53 by early January 2026, with a projected December trading channel between $14.82 and $17.39 and an average year‑end price near $15.50 (~30% upside vs. previous levels). ^[51]
- Longer‑term model points to a one‑year target around $21.97 and a 2030 target near $32.81, though it simultaneously notes that technical sentiment is currently bearish and all 14 tracked indicators are flashing “sell.” ^[52]

These services are tools, not guarantees, but they highlight how the same price history can support either bullish or bearish narratives depending on methodology and time horizon.

8. Is PSKY a Turnaround Story or a Value Trap?

Putting it all together, the investment case for Paramount Skydance today looks like a classic high‑risk, potentially high‑reward media turnaround.

Bullish arguments

Supporters of PSKY tend to emphasize:

Streaming momentum – Rapidly improving economics in the DTC segment, with Q3 streaming profits and guidance for full‑year streaming profitability in 2025. ^[53]
Sports and IP scale – Champions League rights, UFC, South Park and an expanded film slate bolster Paramount’s ability to attract global subscribers and ad dollars. ^[54]
Cost savings and tech upgrade – A credible path to $3B+ in savings, unified tech infrastructure, and AI‑driven efficiencies that could materially improve margins by 2026–27. ^[55]
Potential regulatory optionality – If regulators substantially slow or reshape the Netflix–WBD deal, Paramount may gain leverage or additional strategic options in a less Netflix‑centric market. ^[56]

Bearish arguments

Skeptics, including many on Wall Street, focus on:

High leverage – Around $14–15B in debt on a still‑loss‑making company leaves little room for execution missteps or economic shocks. ^[57]
Structural decline in TV Media – Double‑digit revenue declines in the TV segment and ongoing cord‑cutting pressures may offset gains in streaming for years. ^[58]
Content‑cost inflation – Expensive live‑sports rights (like the €10B Champions League auction) and big‑budget franchises raise the bar for subscriber and ARPU growth. ^[59]
Deal fatigue and M&A uncertainty – The WBD saga has highlighted how dependent some investors are on “white knight” M&A narratives. Without a large acquisition, Paramount must prove it can “build” rather than just buy scale – something management says is possible, but the market hasn’t fully believed yet. ^[60]

9. What to Watch Next for Paramount Skydance Stock

For news‑driven traders and longer‑term investors alike, the next catalysts for PSKY include:

Regulatory review of the Netflix–WBD deal
- Any sign of regulatory pushback, new conditions or delays could reshape expectations for all streaming stocks, including Paramount. ^[61]
Paramount’s response to the WBD outcome
- Whether the company actually pursues a hostile bid or falls back to a more modest M&A and organic‑growth strategy will say a lot about its risk tolerance and balance‑sheet priorities. ^[62]
Q4 2025 and 2026 guidance updates
- The market will scrutinize whether Paramount is on track for its $3.5B AOI and $30B revenue targets for 2026, and how fast debt can be reduced. ^[63]
Streaming KPIs
- Paramount+ subscriber growth, ARPU, churn, advertising trends and the early impact from paramount+ price hikes in 2026. ^[64]
Execution on Champions League rights and sports strategy
- How effectively Paramount monetizes its 2027–31 Champions League package in Europe will be a key proof point for its sports‑led streaming thesis. ^[65]

Final Thoughts (and a Quick Reminder)

As of December 5, 2025, Paramount Skydance looks like a volatile, contested stock:

The share price has been knocked back into the mid‑teens after losing the WBD auction,
Analysts are mostly cautious, with average targets not far from where PSKY already trades, and
Independent models and quant forecasts are sharply divided on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

That combination of headline risk, leverage and genuine transformation efforts is exactly why PSKY is attracting so much attention from traders and long‑term speculators alike.

Important: This article is for informational and news purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.