The Paramount merger has closed, the combined company is now called Skydance, and David Ellison is sitting atop an enormous collection of media properties. For everyone else, the deal promises fewer choices, more concentrated power, and plenty of reasons to reach for the cancel button.

The merger joined Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery under Ellison, whose father, Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, supplied the financial muscle behind the transaction. The Ellisons are friendly with President Donald Trump in particular and Republicans generally, a relationship central to the deal’s approval.

Larry Ellison once gave $15 million in a single contribution to a political action committee associated with Sen. Tim Scott. During the 2024 elections, he also provided Trump with a $45 million dark money lifeline that could not be traced.

Another $16 million went directly to Trump to “settle” what the source describes as a fake lawsuit against CBS. That payment also helped clear the path for this sprawling merger, a remarkable arrangement even by the degraded standards of corporate politics.

With the merger complete, consumers will have a difficult time avoiding the Ellisons’ expanding media empire. Skydance now owns Paramount, including its movie studio, television network, animation company, Paramount+ streaming service, and other operations.

The company also picked up multiple gaming businesses through the merger. That leaves Skydance controlling a vast assortment of entertainment properties while viewers face a sharp narrowing of available choices.

The entire spectacle is a bitter reminder of what happens when antitrust enforcement gives way to billionaire access and presidential favoritism. Instead of restraining media consolidation, the system approved a corporate monstrosity after massive sums flowed toward Trump and Republican political interests.

History offers some brutally expensive warnings about mergers of this size. When the AOL and Time Warner combination fell apart in 2009, it produced a $99 billion write down, hardly a model of brilliant corporate planning.

The AT&T and Time Warner merger offers another grim comparison. The New York Times speculated that it was “the worst merger ever,” and the arrangement lasted only four years while AT&T shareholders lost about $47 billion.

Despite those flashing warning signs, David Ellison has been entrusted with the new media giant. His existing management of CBS News hardly inspires confidence, especially as the network’s news operation suffers under the leadership he selected.

Bari Weiss is running CBS News, but Ellison hired her and retains the power to dismiss her. Since Ellison purchased CBS News and installed Weiss at its helm, “60 Minutes” recorded its worst premiere of the 21st century.

The rankings for “CBS Nightly News” are also falling after Weiss hired Tony Dokoupil as anchor. Meanwhile, major talent such as Anderson Cooper has left the vaunted Tiffany Network as its reputation and audience position deteriorate.

For Ellison, however, those setbacks do not necessarily conflict with the political mission. The apparent assignment is to reshape this enormous media operation into a machine that flatters Trump, and Ellison’s choices at CBS News fit that direction.

The merger’s movie studio holdings may offer Ellison another personal benefit: a chance to revisit his earlier ambitions as an actor. Skydance was apparently created so David Ellison could pursue an acting career, with his billionaire father helping finance his unsuccessful movie.

That history makes the merger look less like inspired entertainment leadership and more like an extraordinarily expensive vanity project. Unfortunately, viewers and workers across the affected media properties will be stuck living with the results while the Ellisons exercise control.

The deal may eventually collapse under its own weight, as other gigantic media combinations have before it. Until then, audiences can expect fewer choices and an onslaught of content from a company whose leadership has already shown its political direction at CBS News.

If Democrats retake the White House, the clearest response would be aggressive antitrust enforcement. Lina Khan, who chaired the Federal Trade Commission under former President Joe Biden, is precisely the kind of antitrust hawk who could take this corporate mess apart.