Social media users are absolutely obliterating President Donald Trump suck-up David Ellison, 43, for calling his new Paramount-Warner Bros. conglomeration Skydance—the name of his own studio.
The controversial $111 billion mega-merger is slated to close next week. Former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz will join Ellison as co-CEO. Skydance engulfed Paramount last year, which gave the MAGA-friendly conglomerate control of CBS News. Shortly after, Ellison installed the Trump-curious Bari Weiss as head of CBS News; Weiss has since been accused of censoring stories criticizing the president.
Ellison announced the conglomerate’s title on his new X account, saying the name Skydance will preserve the “distinct identities” of Paramount and Warner Bros. His post included a video promoting the new brand, featuring dramatic, uplifting music superimposed over clips from various movies and TV shows that now fall under his combined company.
“We chose this name for a few important reasons,” he wrote. “First and foremost, as we bring Paramount and Warner Bros. together, we wanted to preserve what has made each of these studios iconic. Both have distinct identities, extraordinary legacies and brands that have resonated with audiences for generations.”
“We never wanted a new corporate identity to diminish, alter or overshadow either one,” Ellison continued. “Instead, we wanted a name that would give the combined company an identity of its own while allowing Paramount and Warner Bros.—and all our extraordinary brands—to remain in the spotlight.”
Ellison’s statement prompted swift blowback online. Users are criticizing him for claiming he wants to preserve the legacies of the two companies while simultaneously scrubbing their names from the combined company.
One Bluesky user even called the name change an “exercise in corporate hubris.”
“Let’s take 2 of the most storied names in Hollywood, and just completely erase them in favor of the vanity studio my daddy bought me,” media columnist Justin Baragona tweeted in an impression of Ellison.
Another X user echoed the sentiment.
“So you merged two of the biggest companies in the world, just to give it the name you have used for years?” they wrote.
Another posted, “This feels like a funeral for all of these brands.”
On Reddit, a user roasted the name Skydance itself, writing “S--t name; why abandon a century’s worth of brand recognition for something that sounds like a stargazing app?”
“Nobody has ever accused David Ellison of being smart,” another said.
Some critics specifically targeted Ellison’s allegiance to Trump. His merger with Paramount in Aug. 2025 precipitated the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which regularly criticized the president, and Ellison’s father Larry Ellison, 82, donated roughly $45 million to a political nonprofit supporting Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign.
“Hello MAGA TRUMP oligarchy media beast to be called SKYDANCE,” someone wrote on X. “Hollywood is now full-blown MAGA and we creatives are F---ED.”
On Reddit, a user put it plainly: Ellison “missed the opportunity to call it MAGAmount.”
