Skydance names Kotick, Powell Jobs to board pending Warner Bros. merger

Skydance Corporation has appointed Robert A. Kotick and Laurene Powell Jobs to its board of directors, effective upon the closing of its pending merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. The filings, submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 6, 2026, detail these additions as part of the structural changes accompanying the previously disclosed Agreement and Plan of Merger dated February 27, 2026.

The merger agreement involves Skydance Corporation, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Prince Sub Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Skydance. Under the terms of the deal, Prince Sub Inc. will merge with and into Warner Bros. Discovery, with Warner Bros. Discovery surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Skydance Corporation. The board appointments for both new directors are contingent on the completion of these transactions.

Robert A. Kotick, age 63, was appointed on October 4, 2026. He is expected to serve on the board’s Nominating and Governance Committee. Kotick previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, Inc., and as a member of its board from 1991 until 2023, the year Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft Corporation. His tenure at Activision began in 1991 when he acquired a significant interest in the company during a period of financial distress, and he served as its chairman from 1991 to 2008. His other corporate roles include service on the boards of directors of The Coca-Cola Company from 2012 to 2022, as well as prior positions at Yahoo! Inc. and Macromedia, Inc. Kotick also served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and is the Founder and Co-Chairman of the Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit focused on veteran employment. Skydance stated that Kotick is qualified for the role due to his extensive experience running a public company in the media industry.

Laurene Powell Jobs, age 62, was appointed to the board on October 5, 2026. She is the Founder and President of Emerson Collective, an organization that has paired philanthropy with venture capital investing since 2011. Through Emerson Collective, she serves as a lead investor in Anonymous Content and Concordia Studio, and is the majority investor and Chair of the Board of The Atlantic. Powell Jobs also holds board positions at the Waverley Street Foundation, College Track, the XQ Institute, Chicago CRED, and the Ford Foundation. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Ernest C. Arbuckle Award for excellence in management leadership. The company cited her experience in investing in innovative enterprises and her focus on high-quality journalism as reasons for her qualification for the board.

Both Kotick and Powell Jobs are eligible to participate in Skydance’s Non-Employee Director Compensation Program. This includes receiving a Pro-Rated Annual Award upon their appointments and potential Annual Awards at future stockholder meetings if they continue to serve on the board following those meetings. Both individuals have also entered into standard indemnification agreements for directors and officers.

Skydance Corporation is a Delaware corporation with its principal executive offices at 1515 Broadway in New York, New York. Its Class B Common Stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SKYD.