Entertainment Person of the Year, Mattel Chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz speaks during the “Entertainment Person of the Year: Mattel’s Ynon Kreiz” seminar at the Debussy Theater during the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – Day Five on June 21, 2024, in Cannes, France.Richard Bord | Wire image | Getty ImagesDavid Ellison has spent two years struggling to build his media empire. Now, he’s bringing in a heavyweight to help him manage it. Ynon Kreiz, Mattel’s outgoing CEO, will serve as co-CEO of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, which will be called simply Skydance, when the merger closes on Tuesday. The new entity will unite the historic film studios of Paramount and Warner Bros.; the CBS broadcast network; an expanding portfolio of pay television networks including CNN, TNT, MTV and BET; and streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, all under one roof. Kreiz’s appointment to a top executive position alongside Ellison answers a governance question that has surrounded Ellison’s aggressive pursuit of inherited media assets: The tech executive and son of billionaire Larry Ellison can buy it, but can he lead it? Not even 18 months ago, Ellison was the CEO of film production company Skydance with a limited portfolio of hits, namely the Tom Cruise-directed Mission: Impossible franchise and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison speaks during the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on October 9, 2025.Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images In August 2025, it was successfully closing its acquisition of Paramount, a deal valued at around $8 billion. About a month later, he began his campaign for WBD, sparking a back-and-forth bidding war that would ultimately result in a deal valued at approximately $110 billion at the enterprise level to merge two of Hollywood’s largest media companies. Kreiz is a 30-year veteran of the media space, possibly best known for bringing “Barbie” to the big screen in 2023. He has earned a reputation as a change-maker, with roots in entertainment. despite his most recent stint in the consumer goods sector. He joins Paramount Skydance on Monday and becomes co-CEO on closing Tuesday. Many on Wall Street have praised Kreiz for reviving toy maker Mattel through various cost-cutting measures, although others question whether his prior entertainment experience is enough to help Skydance through this merger, and how successfully he and Ellison will share the duties. “We view Ynon Kreiz’s appointment positively as his operational experience and brand/IP focus uniquely position him to help lead the integration of Paramount Skydance and WBD and build the combined business into a premier content and IP platform,” Citizens Bank analyst Matthew Condon said in a research note published this week. Ellison will focus on the company’s long-term strategy, creative vision, technology and capital allocation, and Kreiz will be responsible for the day-to-day management and integration of the combined businesses, the company said in announcing his position. “Kreiz has extensive experience in media and entertainment dating back to before his time at Mattel,” wrote Matthew Dolgin, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, in a research note this week. However, “we don’t necessarily think it’s the best option imaginable to accomplish this task.” “He is certainly an experienced hand that fills a void that had been present, leaving the company in a better position, in our opinion, with him than without him,” Dolgin wrote. “Although his title is co-CEO, we view Kreiz as a chief operating officer.” Mattel TurnaroundPrior to his eight-year stint as CEO of Mattel, Kreiz was CEO and president of Maker Studios, which was sold to The Walt Disney Co. in 2014. Before that, he was president and CEO of Endemol Group, one of the world’s largest independent television production companies. Early in his career, Kreiz co-founded Fox Kids Group Europe, a children’s entertainment company, which was also acquired by Disney in 2002. “He’s a great choice for Paramount,” Eric Handler, managing director and senior media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital Partners, told CNBC. When Kreiz took the helm of Mattel in 2018, he was the fourth CEO in four years to take control of the toy company. At the time, the company’s Fisher-Price, Barbie and American Girl brands were struggling to connect with changing consumer tastes and Mattel was recovering from the recent Toys R Us bankruptcy. Ynon Kreiz at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, July 10, 2024. David Grogan | CNBC “Mattel had a four-year revenue decline, went from being quite profitable to losing money, and turned it around in about two years,” Handler said. Wall Street analysts told CNBC that Kreiz’s experience righting the ship at Mattel will help Skydance navigate a complex and sprawling merger. “It’s off to a great start [at Mattel] because it made some structural improvements,” said Gerrick Johnson, an equity research analyst at Seaport Research Partners. “They eliminated a lot of SKUs, rationalized business lines… They did a great job of cutting $1 billion worth of costs up front, becoming more flexible and faster to market.” As part of these cost-cutting measures, Kreiz restructured Mattel’s supply chain, reduced the number of toys it produced, closed several manufacturing facilities and reduced the overall workforce by 2,200 “Net-net, we believe that Mr. Kreiz’s operational experience restructuring and transforming Mattel, along with his focus on developing world-class intellectual property, uniquely positions him for the role of co-CEO and to lead the integration of Paramount Skydance and WBD, an integration based largely on high-cost synergies and ultimately building a world-class intellectual property and content platform,” Citizens wrote. Condon.Film Strategy One of the first major initiatives Kreiz instituted upon taking over Mattel was the launch of an internal film division. The strategy was to use the box office as a catalyst for toy sales. Through this venture, Mattel partnered with studio Warner Bros. to bring Barbie to the big screen. of $150 million in fiscal year 2023, the year the film was released. Still from “Barbie.” Courtesy: Warner Bros. “You can’t argue that Barbie was anything but a tremendous success,” Johnson said. Mattel that year generated an increase of $90 million in operating profits, which represents a 13% growth on a consolidated basis with the film ‘Barbie’ Barbie revenue increased 3% that year, but since then. Barbie revenues are down 22%…So, a massive deterioration of that Barbie brand since then.” Some Wall Street analysts suggested that Kreiz focused too much on the entertainment side of Mattel’s business, leading to a stagnation in toy innovation and slower sales. “Post-Covid, earnings have been very stagnant,” Johnson said. “The top line has stagnated. Margin growth has stagnated. Innovation has stagnated, and it seems like a classic, you know, taking your eye off the ball.” Mattel stock has also “taken a round trip under Kreiz,” Jaime Katz, senior analyst at Morningstar, wrote in a research note published Tuesday. While shares roughly doubled to the mid-$20 range during his tenure as CEO, they eventually fell to around $15 each. “Kreiz’s strategy to establish Mattel as a high-performing, intellectual property-driven toy company has largely collapsed,” Katz said. He said he intends to achieve $6 billion in cost savings through the merger within three years of closing. At the same time, Ellison and Kreiz will face about $79 billion in debt once the transaction is completed. “Over time, we expect cost synergies to be greater than $6 billion.” million promised,” Martin wrote. While Paramount executives have said most of that savings target will be in non-labor costs, exactly where the savings will come from remains to be seen. Combining the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services into a single platform for consumers, naturally, that could result in a reduction in infrastructure around those businesses. In film, Skydance will now be home to the Warner Bros. and Paramount studios, in addition to its DC studio, and will have lofty production goals that meet. over a three-year period when companies combine operations.”[Kreiz has] “He has a big task ahead of him,” Handler said. “You know, there’s a huge amount of debt, a huge integration situation that he’s facing. But I think he’ll do a great job with that.”
