Paramount to Lay Off 15% U.S. Workforce, About 2,000 Employees, in Fresh Round of Cuts

 Posted on July 11, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  853 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Paramount Global will cut 15% of its U.S. workforce in the next few weeks — a round of layoffs that will affect about 2,000 employees — coming ahead of its planned merger with Skydance Media.

With the layoffs, the company expects to record a $300 million-$400 million restructuring charge in Q3, Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra said.

The details were announced on Paramount’s Q2 earnings call, after the company announced a massive operating loss on a $5.98 billion write-down on the value of its cable TV networks. The devaluation of Paramount’s cable biz was tied to its agreement to be acquired by Skydance Media, which is expected to close by Sept. 30, 2025.

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Speaking on the call, Chris McCarthy, who heads Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, said the job cuts will be primarily in marketing and communications departments at the company with some “right-sizing” in other areas including legal, finance and other corporate functions. McCarthy said Paramount expects to complete the layoffs by the end of 2024.

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Paramount Global had 21,900 employees worldwide as of the end of 2023. In February, the company eliminated about 800 positions.

Currently, the company is led by three execs in the “Office of the CEO”: McCarthy, CBS boss George Cheeks and Brian Robbins, president/CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

The three co-CEOs previously announced plans to cut $500 million in annualized costs, including through layoffs, before the Skydance pact was clinched with controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and Paramount’s board. The management trio had already begun to eliminate duplicative job functions, including across corporate functions like legal and corporate marketing, Variety reported.

The cost-cutting targets of the Skydance team have been even more aggressive. Jeff Shell, set to become president of the combined company, has said Skydance, working with consulting firm Bain & Co., is aiming to achieve at least $2 billion in annualized cost synergies at Paramount. On the earnings call, Paramount’s Chopra emphasized that the $500 million in yearly cost-cuts scoped out by the co-CEOs is incorporated into that $2 billion number.

Shell, chairman of RedBird Sports & Media and former CEO of NBCUniversal, said last month during a press briefing that much of those cost cuts will come from Paramount’s linear TV business: “We know that linear is challenged and declining… [We’ve] got to run these businesses in a different way as they decline.”

Pictured above (l. to r.): George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, Brian Robbins

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