Paramount will slash roughly 1,000 jobs on Wednesday in its first round of major cuts under new CEO David Ellison, with additional cuts expected at later date, TheWrap has learned
The total cuts are expected to impact around 2,000 employees. Representatives for Paramount declined to comment for this story.
The latest round of layoffs at the media giant come as new owner Skydance looks to exceed $2 billion in cost savings. In August, Paramount president Jeff Shell warned that the layoffs would be “painful,” but emphasized that the media giant doesn’t want to “cut its way to growth.”
“Layoffs are always hard, but we don’t want to be a company that every quarter is laying people off,” he added at the time. “So it’s important to us to get done what we’re doing in one bigger thing and then be done with it.”
Prior to the closing of the Skydance merger, the media giant unveiled a plan last year to generate $500 million in cost savings, which included layoffs that occurred over three separate phases.
That included a 15% workforce reduction that impacted areas including communications, advertising and Paramount Television Studios. It also included a separate round impacting 3.5% of its workforce, which it blamed on declines in its linear TV business.
As of the end of 2024, Paramount had approximately 18,600 employees globally across 32 countries and approximately 3,500 project-based staff. Meanwhile, Skydance has more than 500 employees, per its website.
In addition to the formal layoffs, Paramount will begin a phased return to office in January. Employees who decide not to return five days a week will be offered a severance package.
Bloomberg first reported the news of Wednesday’s cuts.
