Warner Bros.’ Iconic Water Tower Gets a Skydance Makeover Just Hours After the Merger Closes

Few Hollywood landmarks are as recognizable as the Warner Bros. water tower. Standing over the studio’s Burbank lot, the tower and its famous WB shield have served as a symbol of the studio for decades, even as the company went through several ownership changes.

Now it’s entering yet another era. On Tuesday morning, October 6, Paramount officially closed its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal first laid out in a merger agreement signed in February.

Skydance didn’t wait long to make the change visible. Within hours of the deal closing, workers repainted the Warner Bros. water tower to add “A Skydance Corporation” directly beneath the WB emblem.

A short clip of the work, shared by DC Film News, quickly spread online. It showed workers on a lift adding the new line while the classic WB shield stayed front and center. Photos from the lot also showed CEO David Ellison addressing employees nearby while the painting was underway. The speed of the update made it clear the new owners wanted their presence felt right away.

The water tower wasn’t the only thing to change. Warner Bros. offices received new Skydance and Paramount decals on their windows, the company websites were updated, and a Skydance billboard appeared outside Paramount’s headquarters in Times Square.

The Warner Bros water tower has been rebranded after the merger It now includes ‘A Skydance Corporation’ https://t.co/KS2ByoTbAf

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) October 6, 2026

The combined company is simply called Skydance and trades under the ticker SKYD. Ellison, the founder of Skydance, leads the business as chairman and CEO, with Ynon Kreiz serving as co-CEO.

In a statement marking the deal’s closing, Ellison called it a historic day for both the company and the entire industry. He said the goal from the beginning had been to bring the 2 studios together and create a stronger competitor capable of telling stories across every genre and platform.

He also thanked employees, creative talent and production teams from both companies, along with the advisors and partners who helped complete the transaction. This isn’t the first time Ellison has put his company’s name on a studio landmark.

After Skydance Media completed its $8 billion takeover of Paramount Global in August 2025, the water tower on the Paramount lot was updated with the same wording. Now both of Hollywood’s legendary studio towers carry the Skydance name. For movie fans, it’s a striking sign of how dramatically the industry has consolidated.

Before the deal could close, Paramount needed antitrust approval from the Justice Department and regulators around the world. Settlement agreements reached last month helped clear the way.

The merger wasn’t without critics. A coalition called Block the Merger argued that it would cost jobs and weaken independent journalism. Skydance has also confirmed plans to combine its 2 streaming services into a single platform over time.

The repainted tower has drawn a strong response online. Some fans joked that the new owners were already rewriting Hollywood history, while others were simply surprised by how fast it happened.

For many, the tower has become a quiet symbol of how quickly the merger moved. The deal closed, the announcements went out, and the paint was going up before the end of the day.

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