Paramount Skydance Stock (PSKY): Outlook After Netflix’s Warner Bros. Deal

Paramount Skydance Corporation (NASDAQ: PSKY) is back in the spotlight as media consolidation takes a dramatic turn. On December 5, 2025, Netflix announced a landmark agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming operations in a cash‑and‑stock deal valued at about $72 billion in equity (roughly $82.7 billion including debt). ^[1]

Paramount Skydance — long seen as a serious contender to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) — now finds itself on the losing side of that auction. Its stock is under pressure as investors reassess the company’s strategy, balance sheet, and long‑term role in the streaming wars.

Below is a detailed, news‑driven look at PSKY as of December 5, 2025, including the latest price action, earnings, deal drama and analyst forecasts.

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) Stock Price Today

As of late morning trading on December 5, 2025, Paramount Skydance stock is trading around $13.92, down about 6.1% on the day. That move leaves the company with an approximate $15.3 billion market capitalization. ^[2]

Key current snapshot:

Price: ~$13.9 per share
Day move: about ‑6% (intraday) ^[3]
52‑week range:$9.95 – $20.86, highlighting how volatile the name has been since the merger and through the Warner Bros. bidding saga ^[4]
Trailing 12‑month revenue: about $28.7 billion
Trailing net income: roughly ‑$272 million, with EPS of –$0.37
Forward P/E: about 17.5 based on analyst estimates
Dividend:$0.20 per share annually (around 1.4% yield at current prices), with the last ex‑dividend date on September 15, 2025 ^[5]

The stock has sold off sharply this week. On Wednesday, December 3, shares fell about 5% to roughly $15.03, on the heels of an earnings miss and growing concerns about the cost and risk of bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery. ^[6] Today’s further decline comes as it becomes clear that Netflix has effectively won that auction.

From Paramount Global to Paramount Skydance: How the Merger Reshaped the Company

Paramount Skydance is a new‑ish ticker, but the business sits on a century of Hollywood history.

On August 7, 2025, the merger of Paramount Global (formerly trading as PARAA and PARA) and Skydance Media closed, creating Paramount Skydance Corporation.
Paramount Global’s Class B shareholders received one share of PSKY for each PARA share; Class A shareholders received about 1.5333 PSKY shares for each PARAA share.
PSKY began trading on the Nasdaq the same day, while the old Paramount Global tickers were suspended on August 8. ^[7]

The combined company is organized into three main segments:

Studios – including Paramount Pictures and Skydance’s production assets
Direct‑to‑Consumer (DTC) – Paramount+, Paramount+ with Showtime, Pluto TV, BET+ and other streaming businesses
TV Media – CBS broadcast network, CBS Stations, and cable brands like Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET and others ^[8]

Management under CEO David Ellison has pitched Paramount Skydance as a “next‑generation media company” built around big‑budget franchises, technological modernization, and a more disciplined approach to content investment and distribution. ^[9]

Q3 2025 Earnings: Streaming Turns Profitable as TV Weakens

Paramount Skydance’s third‑quarter 2025 results, reported on November 10, were the first full snapshot since the merger closed — and they were mixed. ^[10]

Headline numbers

According to reporting from TheWrap and other financial outlets, Q3 looked like this: ^[11]

Revenue: about $6.7 billion, essentially flat year‑on‑year and below Wall Street expectations of roughly $7.0 billion
Net income:loss of ~$257 million, versus a $1 million profit in the year‑ago period
GAAP EPS: about –$0.37 per share
Adjusted EPS: around –$0.12 per share, versus analyst expectations for a profit of roughly $0.38 – $0.40

That combination — flat revenue and a swing to a quarter‑billion‑dollar loss — reinforced investor worries that legacy TV weakness and restructuring costs are still outweighing the early benefits of the Skydance combination.

Streaming: real progress

The bright spot was streaming:

Streaming revenue grew 17% year‑over‑year to about $2.17 billion.
Paramount+ revenue jumped 24% to roughly $1.77 billion.
The streaming segment posted a profit of about $340 million, up from just $49 million a year earlier — a significant milestone in turning DTC into a viable business rather than a perpetual cash drain. ^[12]

Subscriber metrics:

Paramount added around 1.4 million streaming subscribers in the quarter, bringing the total to 79.1 million globally.
Beginning in Q4, Paramount Skydance will stop counting 1.2 million free trialers in that total, which should make the headline sub number slightly smaller but more reflective of paying customers. ^[13]

TV Media and Filmed Entertainment: the drag

The more traditional parts of the business remain under pressure:

TV Media revenue fell 12% to about $3.8 billion, hit by lower political ad spending, cord‑cutting and softer licensing revenue.
The segment still generated $822 million in profit but was down from $936 million a year earlier. ^[14]
Filmed Entertainment revenue actually grew 30% to roughly $756 million, helped by the consolidation of Skydance licensing.
However, the segment posted a $49 million loss, with titles like Smurfs and The Naked Gun underperforming expectations. ^[15]

Cost‑cutting, debt and the long‑term plan

The company also laid out a more aggressive transformation roadmap: ^[16]

Cost savings target raised to $3 billion, up from a prior $2 billion.
About 1,000 layoffs have already occurred; additional cuts and real estate and workflow efficiencies are expected.
Divestitures include Argentina’s Telefe (completed) and Chile’s Chilevisión (expected to close in early 2026), collectively reducing headcount by another ~1,600 employees.
Paramount plans to invest over $1.5 billion in additional programming in 2026 — including UFC rights, new Paramount+ originals and ramped‑up film production.

Financial outlook from management: ^[17]

Q4 2025 guidance: revenue of $8.1 – $8.3 billion (1–4% YoY growth) and adjusted operating income (AOI) of $500–600 million, plus a $500 million restructuring charge.
2026 forecast: around $30 billion in revenue and $3.5 billion in adjusted operating income, driven by streaming growth and cost cuts.
Target to return to investment‑grade debt metrics by the end of 2027; the company ended Q3 with about $3.3 billion in cash and $13.6 billion in gross debt, with only $433 million maturing over the next 12 months.

In short: the Q3 story is profitable streaming plus heavy restructuring, against a backdrop of declining traditional TV and still‑negative overall earnings.

The Warner Bros. Discovery Bidding War — and Netflix’s Win

For much of the autumn, Paramount Skydance was a central player in the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery. The company argued it was uniquely positioned to buy all of WBD — including cable networks like CNN, TNT and TBS — and combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single “super platform.” ^[18]

Paramount’s escalating offers

According to reporting from TheWrap and Reuters, Paramount: ^[19]

Submitted three earlier bids for the entire WBD business, reportedly in the $19–$23.50 per share range.
Raised its proposed breakup fee from about $2.1 billion to $5 billion in early December — more than doubling the penalty it would pay WBD if regulators blocked a deal — to signal confidence in its antitrust case and sweeten the offer. ^[20]
Most recently, offered $30 per share for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a December 5 Reuters brief citing CNBC reporting. ^[21]

Those bids positioned Paramount Skydance as the only suitor willing to take on all of WBD’s assets, including the less glamorous linear networks.

Netflix’s competing bid and definitive deal

Netflix took a different tack, focusing on the film and TV studios plus streaming (HBO/HBO Max) rather than the full cable portfolio.

As of December 5, 2025: ^[22]

Netflix and WBD announced a definitive agreement for Netflix to acquire WBD’s studios and streaming operations in a deal valuing WBD at about $72 billion in equity value, or $82.7 billion including debt.
Each WBD share is to receive roughly $27.75 in total consideration, split between $23.25 in cash and about $4.50 in Netflix stock, subject to a collar.
Netflix has agreed to a $5.8 billion breakup fee payable to WBD if the transaction fails, one of the larger reverse termination fees ever seen in media M&A.
The deal is expected to close after WBD spins off its global networks unit into a separate company (Discovery Global), likely in the third quarter of 2026, and is subject to heavy regulatory review in the U.S. and Europe.

That price is lower than Paramount’s reported $30 per share offer, but Netflix’s bid is mostly cash and carries a very different strategic and regulatory profile.

Paramount’s “unfair process” letter

Paramount Skydance has not taken the outcome quietly.

In a strongly worded letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav — first reported by CNBC and Reuters and echoed in coverage by The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal and others — Paramount accused Warner Bros. Discovery of running a “tilted” and “unfair” sale process that favored Netflix. ^[23]

Among Paramount’s arguments:

The board should form a special committee of independent directors to evaluate bids.
Netflix’s offer allegedly poses greater antitrust risk, while Paramount claims it would face fewer regulatory obstacles.
The sale process may not be maximizing value for WBD shareholders if it gives preference to Netflix over higher‑priced or broader‑scope bids.

Even after the Netflix deal announcement, analysts expect Paramount’s complaints to feed into political and regulatory scrutiny of the transaction — but they do not alter the basic fact that WBD has chosen Netflix as its preferred buyer.

How Markets Are Reacting to PSKY

The market’s verdict so far has been cool.

Stock performance around the deal

On December 3, PSKY fell about 5% to roughly $15.03, with trading volume far below average, as investors digested earnings, renewed WBD chatter, and the possibility of an expensive acquisition. ^[24]
According to a Wall Street Journal live market update, Paramount shares were down around 7% on December 5 after news broke that Netflix had secured the Warner Bros. deal, while Netflix itself also traded lower on deal concerns. ^[25]
Intraday data on December 5 show PSKY at around $13.9, down more than 6%, with roughly 11 million shares changing hands — indicating a meaningful negative reaction as investors price in the loss of WBD and lingering strategic uncertainty. ^[26]

Why are investors nervous?

MarketBeat’s recent alert on Paramount Skydance highlighted several pressure points: ^[27]

The company missed quarterly expectations, with reported EPS and revenue both coming in below consensus.
It generated a negative net margin (~‑0.95%), underscoring that profitability remains fragile despite streaming gains.
Analyst sentiment is “mixed‑to‑negative”, with a distribution of 1 Buy, 5 Hold and 7 Sell ratings in MarketBeat’s compilation and an average rating of “Reduce.”
The average 12‑month price target sits near $13.9, roughly in line with where the stock trades now, though some brokers have targets as high as $18–$19 and others as low as $10–$12.

MarketWatch and other outlets have also noted that investors “don’t like” the Warner Bros. bidding war: shares of both Netflix and Paramount Skydance have traded lower as the size of the bids and breakup fees became clearer, reflecting fears of overpaying for content libraries amid a more disciplined, cash‑flow‑focused environment for streaming stocks. ^[28]

Now that Netflix has actually won the deal, PSKY faces the opposite problem: it remains a mid‑sized, leveraged media company without the incremental scale of WBD — but also without the new debt and integration risk such a deal would have added.

Analyst Ratings and PSKY Stock Forecasts

On the sell‑side, consensus remains cautious.

According to StockAnalysis, which aggregates major broker estimates: ^[29]

The average analyst rating on PSKY is “Sell.”
Based on 11 analysts, the average 12‑month price target is $13.91, implying essentially no upside from current levels.

MarketBeat’s breakdown echoes that stance, with: ^[30]

1 Buy, 5 Hold, 7 Sell ratings and an average target also clustered around $13.9.
Recent moves include:
- Wells Fargo lifting its target from $16 to $18 and assigning an “equal weight” rating.
- Benchmark boosting its target to $19 with a “buy” rating.
- UBS raising its target from $10 to $12 but maintaining a “sell” rating.

In other words, there is pockets of optimism about the merger synergies and streaming turnaround, but the consensus tilt is still negative, largely because:

Traditional TV revenues are shrinking.
The balance sheet remains leveraged.
Paramount Skydance is still posting net losses on a trailing basis. ^[31]

Fundamental Drivers to Watch Going Forward

With the Warner Bros. Discovery deal (for now) out of reach, Paramount Skydance’s investment case pivots back to its organic strategy and smaller‑scale M&A rather than a single transformative takeover.

1. Streaming growth and profitability

Management expects its streaming operations to be profitable for full‑year 2025, and to continue growing revenue into 2026 through: ^[32]

Price increases on Paramount+
Tightening of low‑margin “hard bundle” distribution deals
Bigger sports and tentpole content plays (UFC, South Park and other high‑engagement franchises)

Paramount is also consolidating the back‑end technology for Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ onto a unified infrastructure by mid‑2026, which should improve efficiency and data visibility. ^[33]

If the company can sustain positive streaming margins while growing subs and ARPU, it would go a long way toward justifying a higher multiple on the DTC segment.

2. Sports and premium content rights

Paramount’s recent win of UK rights for most UEFA Champions League matches from 2027 to 2031 gives Paramount+ a premium live‑sports anchor in one of the world’s most lucrative football markets. ^[34]

Coupled with U.S. rights partnerships and planned investment in film and series, that supports management’s push to position Paramount+ as a more global, must‑have streaming brand — though it also raises content costs.

3. Cost savings, restructuring and debt

The raised $3 billion cost‑savings target, ongoing layoffs, real estate rationalization and international channel divestitures are central to Ellison’s plan to restore investment‑grade credit metrics by 2027. ^[35]

Investors will be watching:

Whether AOI can indeed reach $3.5 billion in 2026.
How quickly net leverage falls from current levels.
Whether restructuring and content investments remain on budget.

4. Regulatory overhang from Netflix–WBD

Even though Paramount Skydance lost the bidding war, it has arguably gained leverage as a vocal critic of the Netflix–WBD combination.

Regulators in the U.S. and Europe were already concerned about concentration in streaming and theatrical distribution; Netflix’s acquisition of HBO, DC and Warner’s IP portfolio will amplify those concerns, and Paramount’s letters about an “unfair” process and antitrust risk are likely to be part of the evidentiary and political backdrop. ^[36]

If regulators significantly delay, condition, or ultimately block the deal, the future of Warner Bros. Discovery could be reopened — potentially giving Paramount another shot, or at least changing the strategic landscape again. For now, that is an uncertain optionality, not a base‑case scenario.

Bottom Line: What Today’s News Means for Paramount Skydance Stock

As of December 5, 2025, the story for PSKY looks like this:

The stock is trading in the mid‑teens, near consensus price targets, after a multi‑day slide tied to an earnings miss and the outcome of the Warner Bros. auction. ^[37]
The Netflix–WBD deal removes the possibility of a transformative acquisition (at least for now), which may disappoint investors who wanted scale — but may also spare Paramount from taking on even more leverage to fund a mega‑deal. ^[38]
Fundamentally, Paramount Skydance is a company with:
- Rapidly improving streaming economics
- Structurally challenged linear TV assets
- A large but manageable debt load under an aggressive cost‑cutting plan
- A still‑negative net income profile on a trailing basis

Analysts, on balance, are signaling caution, with an average Sell/Reduce rating and price targets that cluster around where the stock already trades. ^[39]

For investors and traders, the key variables to watch from here are:

Execution on streaming profitability and 2026 AOI targets
Debt reduction and progress toward investment‑grade metrics
The regulatory fate of the Netflix–Warner Bros. deal
The company’s ability to build or acquire must‑watch IP without over‑stretching the balance sheet