Skydance shares rebound as Ellison rings NYSE opening bell
Skydance shares climbed to $9.42 halfway through trading on Thursday, 8 October, up 6% after chief executive David Ellison rang the opening bell in New York.
The bounce almost cleared the losses from the day before, Deadline reported. It followed a two-day slide since the deal that finalised on Tuesday morning, when Skydance, formerly known as Paramount Skydance, completed its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Ellison did not ring alone. He was joined by his wife Sandra Lynn Modic, co-chief executive Ynon Kreiz, board member and investor Gerry Cardinale, chief financial officer Dennis Cinelli, president Andy Gordon, and Makan Delrahim, chief legal officer and president of global corporate affairs.
Ellison struck the brass bell first, then handed the mallet to Kreiz. Each executive on the podium took a turn. The bell did its job.
Before the market opened, Ellison and Kreiz spoke to CNBC from its glass-walled studio on the exchange floor. Ellison described Skydance as a “solution” to disruption of the media business by Big Tech.
The appearance was organised to steady nerves. Skydance trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD, meaning its short code for buying and selling. It finished its debut trading day at $9.51, then pulled back 15% as investors weighed the combined company, an earlier Deadline report said.
By 10:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the shares were down nearly 8% at about $8.84, according to Variety. That extended the slide, despite an overnight lift of more than 1% ahead of Wednesday trading.
Wall Street’s worry centres on debt and television. Analysts point to $79 billion in borrowings and a reliance on linear television, the traditional broadcast and cable channels watched live or to a schedule, which is losing viewers to streaming.
There is more paperwork to come. Skydance has yet to set a date for its third-quarter earnings results, while Netflix opens earnings season for media companies and streamers on 20 October.
For viewers, the ceremony was pure Wall Street theatre. Bells have opened and closed trading at the exchange since the 1870s, when continuous trading began, and the present brass bell dates to the 1903 move to the current building, according to the NYSE.
