Ivan Shapiro Values Skydance at Just $29 Billion in Updated Media Map

Exclusive: According to Ivan Shapiro, media analyst, Skydance is worth only $29 billion in its new form due to its massive debts. The former head of NBC, Participant Media and IFC, who now charts the media landscape through his ESHAP business, said the valuation reflects the $81 billion in debt Skydance took on on its first day […]

EXCLUSIVE: The new-look Skydance is worth just $29 billion because of its debt pile, according to media analyst Evan Shapiro.

The former NBC, Participant Media and IFC executive, who now charts the media landscape through his ESHAP business, said the valuation was driven by both the $81 billion in debt Skydance assumed on the first day of the deal and its relationship with major shareholder Oracle, which has more than $160 billion in long-term debt due to investments in artificial intelligence.

Shapiro is speaking at MIPCOM in Cannes this week, where he will unveil the latest version of his media world map, the first interactive version, allowing users to compare past entertainment and technology ecosystems to 2026. CLUB: Here's what senior executives took home from the Skydance deal

"One of the puzzles we had to solve in building this map was figuring out what the name Paramount/WBD is and more importantly, WTF Skydance is really worth," he said before his speech. "No one in their right mind would buy the $81 billion in debt they're carrying, and no one high as a kite would buy Skydance for the $111 billion it just paid for WBD. Watch at Deadline.

One of the biggest reasons is that the fortunes of Skydance and Oracle are already intrinsically intertwined, with a combined $240 billion in debt, a good portion of which is either junk or a millimeter above junk. To put it in perspective the Ellisons now owe more than Disney is worth.

Shapiro claimed that meant his team had to determine a net asset value for Skydance that was only $29 billion, far less than what Paramount paid David Ellison for WBD.

We've reached out to Skydance for comment.

The latest media world map shows the dominance of tech companies, with Nvidia valued at $5.3 trillion, followed by Apple ($4.9 trillion), Alphabet ($4.3 trillion), Microsoft ($3.8 trillion), Amazon ($2.8 trillion), Amazon ($2.8 trillion) and Meta ($1.8 trillion). Larry Ellison's Oracle, which is the main shareholder of the US version of the Chinese social business platform Bytedance, was valued at $429 billion.

India's Reliance, which owns Disney-backed streamer JioHotstar, was at $164 billion, Sony at $144 billion. Both companies have assets beyond the media space.

Shapiro, who describes his role as a media mapper, has been publishing his media maps for six years and is unveiling the first interactive version this week at Cannes. As he has explained in the past, he claims that there has been a fundamental shift in media ownership in recent years, as the map shows.

"The biggest change in the world of media since I started mapping it is the shift from an industry controlled by C-suites to an ecosystem controlled by consumers," he said. We are now in the "user-centric era", so I felt it was only fitting to put control of our map in the hands of the users. This new Media Universe Map app does just that—it lets you navigate the map yourself, on desktop or mobile, and double-click on anything and everything you want most.

He added that this functionality allows users of his app to compare today's landscape with the past.

"One of the things I get asked for most on my map is a throwback car to compare previous years to today's map," he said. "This new user-centric map does just that – we've included a time machine to allow you to compare and shrink the media universe from years and eras past to the latest landscape."

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