The Paramount Skydance Corporation logo and lettering can be seen on the Paramount stand at Media Days in Munich (Bavaria, Germany).
Matthias Bork | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
paramount skydance The company is cutting nearly 1,000 jobs starting Wednesday, just months after the merger closed, according to people familiar with the matter. The person said the cuts will ultimately amount to 2,000 positions.
“As we launched a new Paramount company in August, we made it clear that building a strong company for the future required significant changes, including a restructuring of our organization,” CEO David Ellison told employees in a memo Wednesday morning. “As part of that process, we have also had to reduce the size of our workforce, and we recognize that these measures impact our most important asset: our employees.”
The Paramount-Skydance merger was completed in August, weeks after receiving long-sought regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
Immediately after the deal was finalized, Ellison and Paramount’s leadership sent a telegram announcing future layoffs and announced more than $2 billion in cost synergies.
Ellison said in a memo Wednesday that the cuts will address “redundancy across the organization” and “phase out roles that no longer align with our evolving priorities and new structure designed to strengthen our focus on growth.”
“Ultimately, these steps are necessary for Paramount’s long-term success,” Ellison said in the memo. The layoffs will be company-wide, including CBS News, its portfolio of pay-TV networks and its film studios.
Under Ellison’s leadership, Paramount has made a series of changes and deals since the summer, including TKO Group’s seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal with UFC and the acquisition of online publication The Free Press. The company also warner bros discovery CNBC previously reported in recent weeks.
This is the first layoff for the newly combined company, although Paramount had made a series of layoffs before the deal closed. Paramount’s former management announced it would cut its U.S.-based workforce by 15% in 2024.
Paramount cut its U.S.-based workforce by 3.5%, or hundreds of jobs, in June, CNBC reported at the time.
The media industry has seen widespread layoffs in recent months as companies grapple with the decline of traditional pay-TV bundles and macroeconomic headwinds that are weighing on advertising revenue.
— CNBC’s Julia Boorstin contributed to this article.
