Skydance Worth $29B After $81B Debt Load, Analyst Finds
The company that now owns Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery is worth $29 billion once debt is stripped out, according to media analyst Evan Shapiro.
Shapiro puts the figure as net asset value, meaning what is left after debts are taken from assets, in research detailed by Deadline on 12 October 2026. He says Skydance took on $81 billion in debt on its first day of trading.
Shapiro is a former NBC, Participant Media and IFC executive. He charts the business through his company ESHAP and has been publishing his media maps for six years.
He is due to unveil the latest edition, the Media Universe Map, at MIPCOM Cannes this week. MIPCOM is the international television market where buyers and sellers meet to trade shows and formats. This edition is the first interactive one. It lets users compare past entertainment and technology line-ups with 2026.
Technology groups tower over media on the 2026 map. Nvidia leads at $5.3 trillion, followed by Apple at $4.9 trillion, Alphabet at $4.3 trillion, Microsoft at $3.8 trillion, Amazon at $2.8 trillion and Meta at $1.8 trillion. Oracle sits at $429 billion.
Netflix is the largest pureplay media business, meaning a company focused on media rather than tech or other industries, at $293 billion. Disney follows at $187 billion. India's Reliance is mapped at $164 billion and Sony at $144 billion, while Comcast is at $73 billion, Fox at $25 billion and Roku at $23 billion. Fox is set to almost double in size once it completes its Roku deal, according to the map.
The debt load sits at the centre of Shapiro's maths. He says Oracle carries more than $160 billion in long-term debt after heavy spending on artificial intelligence. Together, Skydance and Oracle carry $240 billion in debt, according to Deadline. The report puts the price paid for Warner Bros. Discovery by David Ellison's Paramount at $111 billion.
Company papers give a sense of where the borrowing sits. Paramount Skydance Corporation has announced $41.4 billion and €885 million in Senior Secured Notes, which are borrowings backed by company assets, alongside an $8.5 billion and €850 million Term Loan B facility, a form of long-term bank loan. Investor materials say the combined company's debt includes $12 billion of existing Paramount Skydance net debt and $15 billion of refinanced Warner Bros. Discovery debt. Paramount earlier said it would remove Warner Bros. Discovery's potential $1.5 billion financing cost linked to a debt exchange offer.
What makes this stand out is the gap. The most valuable media company is still a fraction of the tech giants that now commission, distribute and compete with it. Behind those valuations sit crews, writers' rooms and slates that either get funded or do not.
