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Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shareholders voted to approve the $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance (PSKY), sending Paramount's stock lower as investors digested the supersized deal.

On Wednesday, Warner Bros. shared in a release that "based on the preliminary vote count from today's Special Meeting, WBD stockholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the adoption of the merger agreement with Paramount."

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav said in the release that the vote is "another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders."

There are more steps to come, though. Pending regulatory clearances, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.

This approval has been a long time coming. Netflix (NFLX) initially won the bid for Warner Bros. with a nearly $83 billion deal that was then outbid by Paramount, which offered to pay $31.00 per share in cash and Netflix's $2.8 billion termination fee.

This deal combines the streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+ — think "Sopranos" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" under one umbrella, or "Euphoria" and "Harry Potter."

Zaslav believes the combination will create a "next-generation media and entertainment company."

Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote earlier this month that if the deal closes, the company would have roughly 200 million gross streaming subscribers, "which is larger than most other streaming competitors, other than Netflix."

She added, "The combined company will no longer operate 3 mid-tier OTT [over-the-top] services but a global OTT platform that will be a meaningful competitor for consumer time, pricing power, and ad monetization, we believe."

Plus, the company will have the two largest film and TV libraries and "one of the strongest general entertainment portfolios in the media industry, spanning theatrical, TV, sports, news, and DTC [direct to consumer], we believe," Martin wrote.

Paramount Skydance previously said it is committed to "producing a minimum of 30 theatrical films annually."

Meanwhile, Netflix (NFLX) is moving on. Investors were wary of the debt associated with the transaction, and when it fell through, there was a sigh of relief on the Street.

"We see a cleaner Netflix story post-WBD merger break, as investors refocus around core and near-term fundamentals and seek evidence that Netflix can scale a massive $10B+ advertising business over the long term," BMO's Brian J. Pitz wrote in a note.

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Brooke DiPalma is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.

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