Paramount Skydance employees face a broad general selection under David Ellison’s new management regime the week of October 27. Variety confirmed.
Major job cuts were expected even before the Skydance Media-Paramount Global deal closed, part of Ellison and his team’s goal to cut costs by more than $2 billion. Previously, the company was targeting layoffs by early November. The new round of cuts is expected to eliminate about 2,000 jobs in the United States, as well as additional layoffs internationally.
At an Aug. 7 news conference in New York, just hours after the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger officially closed, Jeff Shell, the former NBCUniversal CEO who is now chairman of Paramount Skydance, told reporters that the company would make cost cuts and layoffs as quickly as possible and that this would be disclosed in the company’s third-quarter 2025 earnings report to investors in November. On Friday, Paramount Skydance announced that it would release its third-quarter financial results on November 10 after the market close.
Like other traditional media companies, Paramount – parent 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 shift to streaming.
As of December 31, 2024, according to Paramount’s most recent annual 10-K filing with the SEC, the company had approximately 18,600 full- and part-time employees in 32 countries around the world. (Two years earlier, Paramount’s headcount was 24,500.) Before the Skydance deal closed, Paramount made additional layoffs, including a 3.5 percent reduction in its domestic staff in June. Meanwhile, Skydance’s website says it has “over 500” employees.
Even as Paramount Skydance prepares to cut jobs, it has signed new deals investing more in content. A week after the Skydance takeover, Paramount announced a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal for exclusive rights to the UFC, a deal with Activision to make a film based on “Call of Duty” and the acquisition of Bari Weiss’s The Free Press for $150 million. The company also recently lured the Duffer Brothers, creators of “Stranger Things,” from Netflix with a new exclusive four-year pact to make movies, shows and streaming programs.
Meanwhile, Ellison – chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance – is considering buying Warner Bros. Discovery in what would be a much larger M&A deal than the Paramount Global buyout. WBD reportedly rejected Paramount’s $20 per share offer as too low. The Ellison family holds 100% voting control of Paramount Skydance; the Paramount-Skydance deal was largely financed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison (David’s father).
Ellison has made a series of senior hires since the deal closed, including Makan Delrahim, who advised Skydance on its acquisition of Paramount Global, as chief legal officer; former Meta exec Dane Glasgow as chief product officer; and Roku’s Jay Askinasi as chief revenue officer. Other nominations include Cindy Holland, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, who play key roles in Paramount’s streaming and theatrical divisions. George Cheeks, who oversaw CBS before the deal, remained at the company with the new title of “president of TV media.”
In a July 2024 investor presentation after announcing the Skydance deal with Paramount and Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc., Shell said the Skydance team, working with consulting firm Bain & Co., had identified at least $2 billion in potential annualized cost savings at the combined company. At the time, Shell indicated that a large part of these cost reductions would come from its linear television business.
Paramount’s plans to begin layoffs the week of October 27 were previously reported by Deadline.
