What Happened to WBD Stock? Paramount Skydance Bought It in a Cash Deal Worth About $31.02 a Share
Eligible Warner Bros. Discovery shares became the right to about $31.02 each in cash when Paramount Skydance completed its purchase on October 6, 2026. The deal’s late fee ran only from October 1 to the closing, six days after a court cleared the deal on September 30, so it added 1.7 cents a share.
The short answer. Paramount Skydance, now called Skydance (SKYD on the New York Stock Exchange), bought all of Warner Bros. Discovery, putting HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. under the same owner as CBS and Paramount Pictures. WBD shares no longer trade, and shares held at a broker were due about $31.02 each automatically, with no paperwork. Owners of paper certificates are paid after sending them in with the claim form the paying agent mails. The filings set no date for the money to reach any account.
WBD payout and the low before it
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What happened to WBD stock
WBD stock stopped trading after October 5, 2026, because Paramount Skydance bought the whole company the next morning. The WBD shares in an account were replaced by cash, and no new shares were added in their place.
The last trading day was Monday, October 5. Nasdaq halted WBD at about 7:50 p.m. Eastern Time that evening, and its corporate actions alert set the suspension for October 7. In StockTitan’s real-time Nasdaq data the official close that day was $30.95.
The deal closed before the open on October 6. From that moment holders kept only the right to the cash, as the WBD closing 8-K states (our guide explains what an 8-K reports). WBD asked Nasdaq to remove the stock from listing, and on October 16 it filed a Form 15, which ends its duty to file public reports for the stock.
Warner Bros. Discovery still exists as a company, now owned entirely by Skydance Corporation, which paid about $78 billion to WBD’s shareholders. Skydance is the new name of Paramount Skydance Corporation, which moved its shares from Nasdaq to the NYSE under the ticker SKYD the same day. What the combined company owns and owes is in our look at who owns HBO Max now.
WBD stock payout per share
Eligible WBD shares became the right to about $31.02 each in cash: the agreed price plus a few days of a daily late fee. No Skydance shares were part of it, and holders had no choice to make.
The merger agreement of February 27, 2026 set the price at $31.00 a share in cash. It added a daily late fee it calls the Ticking Consideration for every calendar day the closing ran past September 30, 2026, with a cap shown in the panel below. Six days of it added about 1.7 cents, so the exact payment was $31.01666668 a share, as the closing 8-K states.
Two kinds of shares were left out of that payment. Shares the buyer or WBD itself held were canceled, and owners who properly sought a court appraisal wait for the court’s figure instead (the last section below).
There was no cash or stock election. Paramount’s earlier $30 cash tender offer was ended when the agreement was signed, and the proxy describes only the cash payment. The earlier Netflix deal and WBD’s plan to split off its Discovery Global cable business were both dropped, so no Netflix or Discovery Global shares came to holders either. Because no new shares were issued to WBD holders, there are no fractional new shares to settle either. The agreement pays the same cash for each WBD share. The filings do not say how a broker treats a fraction of a share or rounds a total to the cent.
The Skydance warrants distributed on October 13, which can be exchanged for Skydance shares at a set price, are a separate matter. The October 13 filing says they went to holders of Skydance Class B shares as of October 5, so WBD shares earned none.
As an illustration, 100 WBD shares came to $3,101.67 in cash, rounded to the cent and before any tax withholding. Of that, $3,100 is the agreed price and $1.67 is the six days of late fee.
| Part of the payment | Per WBD share |
|---|---|
| Agreed cash price | $31.00 |
| Ticking Consideration, October 1 to October 6, 2026 (6 days at $0.00277778) | $0.01666668 |
| Total cash per share | $31.01666668 |
| Ticking Consideration paid across all common shares | $41,886,975.78 in total |
Source: WBD Form 8-K filed October 6, 2026, Item 2.01; merger agreement of February 27, 2026. The fee ran at $0.00277778 a calendar day after September 30, 2026, at most $0.25 for each 90 days.
When will WBD shareholders get paid
For shares held at a broker, or registered electronically in your own name with the transfer agent, the cash was due automatically from October 6, with nothing to send. Only owners of paper stock certificates have to mail them in before they are paid.
Before the closing the buyer had to place the full amount with a paying agent, a bank or trust company that hands out the money. The rules are in Article III of the merger agreement, printed in the merger proxy. Holders of book-entry shares (shares recorded electronically, which covers brokerage accounts) need no certificate and no form, and the agent pays them “as promptly as practicable” after the closing.
For certificate holders, the agent had to mail a letter of transmittal (the claim form that goes back with the certificates) by the fifth business day after the closing. Payment follows, as promptly as practicable, once the agent has the signed letter, the certificates and any other papers it reasonably asks for. A sworn statement stands in for a lost certificate, and the agent can ask for a bond too.
No interest is added for the wait. The filings set no date for brokers to credit the money, and they do not name the paying agent. The proxy counts the cash as a taxable sale of the shares for U.S. federal income tax, as the FAQ below explains.
The record date of March 20 decided only who could vote. The cash belongs to whoever owned the shares at the closing, and the proxy says a holder who sold before then passed the right to the cash to the buyer.
Money still undistributed a year after the closing, from October 6, 2027, can be returned to WBD, the company that survived the merger, when it asks for it. A holder then claims from WBD, and state unclaimed property laws can apply.
Show the data
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2026-02-27 | Merger agreement signed |
| 2026-03-20 | Record date for the vote only, not for the cash |
| 2026-04-23 | WBD holders approve the merger |
| 2026-07-24 | Companies agree to wait: 5 days after court ruling or June 1, 2027 |
| 2026-09-30 | Court enters the states' settlement and lets the deal close |
| 2026-10-05 | Last trading day; trading halted about 7:50 p.m. ET |
| 2026-10-06 | Deal closes; eligible shares become about $31.02 each in cash |
| 2027-02-03 | Last day for appraisal petitions, for holders who demanded one |
Why the WBD buyout took until October
The companies expected to finish by the end of September, until two lawsuits filed in July froze the deal. WBD stock fell to $25.28 at its lowest close, and it was back at $30.80 on the day both suits were settled.
Shareholders approved the deal on April 23, according to the vote results, and the merger proxy had expected a closing by the end of the third quarter of 2026. In July twelve states and the Writers Guild of America sued to block it. On July 24 the companies agreed not to close until five days after a court ruling or June 1, 2027, whichever came first, as the second quarter 10-Q records.
On Monday, July 27, the next trading day, WBD closed at $25.28, its lowest close after the signing and 18.5% under the deal price.
Waiting carried a cost for the buyer too. At the fee’s daily rate, a closing on June 1, 2027 would have added about 68 cents a share. Paramount said on September 8 that the delay could cost it up to $1.88 billion. Paramount’s estimate included both the fee and extra financing costs. The fee actually paid on WBD’s common shares came to $41.9 million.
Both suits were settled on September 21. On September 30 the court entered the states’ consent decree, a court-approved settlement holding the combined company to five years of promises. It also lifted the hold on closing, according to the Paramount filing that day. That evening the companies set October 6 as the closing date. By the last session the stock sat 6.7 cents under the payout.
WBD appraisal rights and the last deadlines
Only holders who sent a written demand before the April 23 vote could ask a Delaware court to set their price. For everyone else the cash payment is final.
Appraisal is a Delaware law right to have a court decide the fair value of shares in place of the deal price. The proxy says it was open only to holders who sent a written demand before the April 23 vote. They also had to stay out of the yes vote and hold their shares through the closing.
A holder who has not started an appraisal proceeding, or joined one as a named party, can withdraw the demand in writing and take the cash. That window is 60 days from the closing, which ends on December 5, 2026. A petition to the Delaware Court of Chancery has to be filed within 120 days of the closing, by February 3, 2027. The proxy warns that the court’s value could come out above, equal to or below the deal price.
What to watch
- Whether any former WBD holder asks a court to value the shares: the Delaware Court of Chancery docket will show any appraisal petition, which is due by February 3, 2027.
Our numbers
These figures are our calculations from the sources linked in this article.
- $25.28, 18.5% under the $31.00 price: the lowest WBD close in StockTitan’s daily price data from the February 27, 2026 signing to October 5.
- $30.80: the WBD close on September 21, 2026 in the same data.
- 6.7 cents: the per-share payout minus the October 5 official close of $30.95 in StockTitan real-time Nasdaq data.
- $3,101.67 for 100 shares, $1.67 of it Ticking Consideration: 100 times the per-share payout and the per-share fee, rounded to the cent.
- About 68 cents: the fee’s $0.00277778 daily rate times the 244 days from October 1, 2026 to June 1, 2027.
Frequently asked questions
How to sell WBD stock now?
It can no longer be sold. WBD’s last trading day was October 5, 2026, WBD asked Nasdaq to file a Form 25 to remove it from listing, and Nasdaq suspended the stock on October 7. WBD then filed a Form 15 on October 16 to end its registration, and eligible shares became a right to about $31.02 each in cash.
Is the WBD buyout cash taxable?
The merger proxy says the exchange of WBD shares for cash is a taxable transaction for U.S. federal income tax purposes. A U.S. holder generally recognizes a gain or loss equal to the cash minus the tax basis, which is generally what was paid for the shares. The profit and loss calculator works that out from a purchase price. It is long term if the shares were held more than a year at the closing. Non-U.S. holders generally owe no U.S. tax on the gain, with exceptions. Backup withholding, a 24% amount held back for the IRS, can apply when no Form W-9 or W-8 is on file. The proxy tells holders to consult their own tax advisers.
Did WBD shareholders get Skydance shares or warrants?
No. The payment was cash only, and the Skydance warrants issued on October 13 went to holders of Skydance Class B shares as of October 5, 2026.
Does WBD stock pay dividends?
WBD paid no dividend on its common stock from the start of its trading in April 2022, as the proxy states, and it agreed to pay none before the closing. With the shares now converted to cash, none will follow.
Did I need to own WBD on March 20 to get paid?
No. March 20, 2026 was the record date for the April 23 vote only. The cash was due to whoever owned the shares at the closing on October 6, and the merger proxy says a holder who sold before then passed the right to the cash to the buyer.
Sources
- WBD Form 8-K, completion of the merger, October 6, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Skydance (formerly Paramount Skydance) Form 8-K, closing, October 6, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Skydance Form 8-K, warrant distribution, October 13, 2026 (StockTitan)
- WBD Form 8-K, merger agreement, February 27, 2026 (StockTitan)
- WBD definitive merger proxy, March 26, 2026 (StockTitan)
- WBD Form 8-K, special meeting results, April 23, 2026 (StockTitan)
- WBD Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Paramount Skydance Form 8-K, settlements and court order, September 30, 2026 (StockTitan)
- WBD Form 15, October 16, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Anticipated closing date release, September 30, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Paramount Skydance release on the cost of delay, September 8, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Completion release, October 6, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Nasdaq Equity Corporate Actions Alert #2026-710
- WBD Form 8-K, October 6, 2026 (SEC)
- WBD definitive merger proxy (SEC)
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