CNN’s boss will remain as Paramount and WBD merge into Skydance

CNN CEO Mark Thompson will remain at the head of the news network when Paramount’s $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition closes this week. Thompson wrote in a memo to employees that he believes the combined company will “fully support the principle and practice of the kind of independent news that CNN has always stood for,” according to a report from The New York Times . The news comes as part of an announcement detailing the combined company’s executive leadership. Paramount CEO David Ellison will lead the companies — to be called Skydance — alongside former Mattel head Ynon Kreiz . Speculation about what would become of CNN swirled following the news of the media megamerger, which puts WBD’s CNN and Paramount’s CBS News under the same roof