Paramount Skydance has been cutting jobs this week, with Variety confirming on Wednesday that the newly merged company is considering cutting about 1,000 jobs, primarily in the United States.
This week’s layoffs will be followed by further layoffs expected at a later date, according to people familiar with the plans. Paramount Skydance, led by Chairman and CEO David Ellison, has embarked on a series of significant job cuts, totaling approximately 2,000 jobs in the United States, and is expected to result in additional cuts internationally.
A representative for Paramount Skydance declined to comment. The company’s layoff plans this week were earlier reported by Bloomberg.
Large-scale layoffs were expected even before the Skydance Media and Paramount Global deal closed as part of a stated goal of cutting costs by more than $2 billion.
At a press conference in New York on Aug. 7 after the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger was officially completed, Jeff Shell, former CEO of NBCUniversal and current president of Paramount Skydance, told reporters that the company would cut costs and staff as quickly as possible and would disclose them to investors in the company’s 2025 third-quarter earnings report in November. Paramount Skydance will announce its third quarter results after the market closes on November 10th.
Ellison, the founder of Skydance Media, has grand ambitions for the entertainment giant. That includes a possible second deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, which would transform the combined company into a vast rivalry that could better compete with streaming giants like Netflix and new entrants to the entertainment space such as Apple and Amazon, which have invested heavily in the entertainment space. So far, Warner Bros. Discovery has rejected his offer.
Since taking over Paramount, Ellison has opened his wallet. Paramount spent $7 billion to sign an exclusive seven-year deal for UFC rights. The company recently lured “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer brothers from Netflix with a new four-year exclusive deal to produce movies, shows and streaming programming. Some of Mr. Ellison’s moves have been more controversial, such as his $150 million purchase of the right-wing news outlet Free Press and his decision to make its founder, Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News despite no TV experience.
Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, has shown an aggressive approach. But Paramount is grappling with the same problems plaguing other major media outlets. That means revenue is down as viewers shift from cable and broadcast TV to streaming, and the theatrical movie business has yet to recover from the coronavirus.
