Paramount Skydance to cut about 1,000 jobs

New Delhi: Paramount Skydance Corp. will begin laying off about 1,000 employees on Wednesday, the first major restructuring step since Skydance’s $8.4 billion merger with Paramount closed in August. The cuts equal roughly 5% of Paramount’s pre-merger workforce and are expected to fall largely on US corporate functions, according to multiple reports. 

Management has signalled that the goal is to deliver about $2 billion in annual cost savings. “We do not want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter… It’s going to be painful,” Paramount President Jeff Shell said earlier, framing the reductions as a swift, one-time reset. 

Paramount employed approximately 18,600 full- and part-time staff as of Dec. 31, 2024, plus about 3,500 project-based workers, figures that underpin today’s 5% estimate. 

The company also executed a 3.5% US workforce cut in June, ahead of the merger. 

The streamlining comes as legacy TV revenues face pressure from cord-cutting while the combined company pursues scale in streaming and studios. Separately, Paramount Skydance’s appetite for M&A has drawn attention: Warner Bros. Discovery recently rejected a nearly $60 billion approach from Ellison’s group, according to Reuters.