Billionaire and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs paid $250 million to acquire a stake in Skydance, the David Ellison-led company formed by the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, was named to the board of Skydance on Oct. 5 alongside former Activision chief Bobby Kotick, which was announced the following day.
With her board appointment, Powell Jobs acquired 20.83 million shares of Skydance Corp. for $12 each, for a total of $250 million. She indirectly owns those shares, which are held in a trust, per an SEC filing disclosing the investment.
In addition to that investment, Powell Jobs — in her capacity as a Skydance board member — was granted 33,118 restricted stock units in the company. Those are scheduled to vest with Skydance’s 2027 annual meeting of stockholders.
At Emerson Collective, which she launched in 2011, Powell Jobs has “paired philanthropy with venture capital investing to support entrepreneurs tackling complex global challenges,” according to her official bio. “She believes that investing in education, economic mobility, immigration, and energy can expand opportunity for the next generation and that high-quality independent journalism is essential to a functioning democracy.”
Through Emerson Collective, Powell Jobs is the lead investor of Anonymous Content, an independent production and management company, and Concordia Studio, which describes itself as a “talent-first” film and television studio, founded by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim. She is the majority investor and chair of the board of the Atlantic under a deal reached in 2017. Emerson Collective also has invested in artificial intelligence giants OpenAI and Anthropic. Powell Jobs, who was married to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has a current net worth estimated at $15.8 billion, according to Forbes.
Skydance brings together two major Hollywood studios, streamers HBO Max and Paramount+, and TV networks including CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, TBS and TNT.
The Ellison family — with the multibillion-dollar backing of Larry Ellison, David’s tech-mogul father — holds the largest equity stake in Skydance. RedBird Capital Partners, led by managing partner Gerry Cardinale, invested $4 billion into Skydance. Equity investors in the Paramount-WBD merger also included the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The Ellisons and investment firm RedBird Capital Partners together are the sole holders of Paramount Class A common stock, including 100% of the combined company’s voting shares.
Skydance, in announcing her appointment to the board, said it “believes that Ms. Powell Jobs is qualified to serve as a member of the board because of her extensive experience and focus investing in innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises and on high-quality journalism.”
Powell Jobs also co-founded and serves on the boards of the Waverley Street Foundation, College Track and the XQ Institute, aimed at advancing community-led climate solutions and strengthening educational outcomes. In addition, she serves on the boards of Chicago CRED and the Ford Foundation. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Ernest C. Arbuckle Award for excellence in the field of management leadership.