Paramount Skydance employees face a complete shake-out the week of October 27 under David Ellison’s new management, Variety has confirmed.
As part of Ellison and his team’s goal of reducing costs by more than $2 billion, significant layoffs were expected even before the Skydance Media and Paramount Global deal closed. The company had previously targeted job cuts by early November. The new layoffs are expected to result in approximately 2,000 jobs being eliminated in the United States, with additional job cuts expected overseas.
At an Aug. 7 press conference in New York, just hours after the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger was officially finalized, 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 announced Friday that it will report its third-quarter financial results after market close on Nov. 10.
Like other traditional media companies, Paramount, the parent company of CBS, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+ and Pluto TV, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET, has seen a long-term decline in traditional advertising and distribution revenue as pay-TV subscribers migrate to streaming.
According to Paramount’s most recent 10,000 annual report filed with the SEC, as of December 31, 2024, the company had approximately 18,600 full-time and part-time employees in 32 countries around the world. (Two years ago, Paramount had 24,500 employees.) Before the Skydance deal was completed, Paramount made additional job cuts in June, including a 3.5% reduction in its domestic workforce. Meanwhile, Skydance’s website says it has “more than 500” employees.
Even as Paramount Skydance prepares for layoffs, it has signed new deals to focus more on content. A week after Skydance took over, Paramount announced a $7.7 billion, seven-year deal for exclusive rights to the UFC, a deal with Activision to make films based on “Call of Duty,” and the acquisition of Bari Weiss’ The Free Press for a reported $150 million. The company recently snagged “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer Brothers from Netflix in a new four-year exclusive deal to produce movies, shows and streaming programming.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, is embarking on an acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a much larger M&A than the acquisition of Paramount Global. WBD reportedly rejected Paramount’s $20 per share offer as too low. The Ellison family has 100% voting rights in Paramount Skydance. The Paramount-Skydance deal was largely financed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison (David’s father).
Mr. Ellison has made a series of executive hires since the deal closed, including Makan Delrahim, who advised Skydance on its acquisition of Paramount Global as chief legal officer. Former Meta executive Dane Glasgow joins as chief product officer. and Roku’s Jay Askinasi as chief revenue officer. Other appointments include Cindy Holland, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, who will hold key roles in Paramount’s streaming and film divisions. George Cheeks, who oversaw CBS before the acquisition, remained with the company with a new title of “chairman of television media.”
In a July 2024 presentation to investors after the Skydance deal between Paramount and Shari Redstone’s National Amusements was announced, Shell said the Skydance team worked with consulting firm Bain & Company to identify potential annual cost savings of at least $2 billion for the combined company. At the time, Shell suggested that many of these cost savings would come from its linear television business.
Paramount’s plans to begin layoffs the week of October 27 were previously reported by Deadline.
