Skydance Shares Fall 22% as Market Cap Drops Below $40 Billion

Skydance Corp.'s market capitalization has fallen to under $40 billion in mid-October 2026, after the newly merged company distributed roughly 471 million warrants that gave holders of its PSKY Class B shares the option to buy stock at $12 per share, according to Variety.

The company's stock plunged 22 percent on Wednesday. Before the opening, the New York Stock Exchange lowered Skydance's share price by 19.4 cents on Tuesday after market close to account for the warrant issuance. Skydance said the warrants represent only about 9 percent of its Class B common stock, and that at the $9.07 per share price of that stock, the distribution would have implied a $45.6 billion market cap.

By Thursday, shares closed up 2.8 percent at $7.26, putting the company's market value at $36.6 billion. That is well below the $77.7 billion market cap that Warner Bros. Discovery carried on Oct. 5, 2026, when Paramount stood at around $11 billion.

What the merger cost

Skydance Corp. was formed under CEO David Ellison after he won a yearlong battle for Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount paid WBD shareholders about $78 billion in cash, at $31.01666668 per share, and assumed WBD's debt of $33.1 billion as of the end of June, leaving the merged company's net debt at nearly $80 billion.

Skydance has projected $6 billion in annualized cost savings over three years while investing in content, including more than 30 films released theatrically per year. Its interest payments alone will run north of $6 billion per year. RedBird Capital Partners holds Skydance Class A stock.