Paramount Skydance will begin firing 1,000 employees on Wednesday — the first phase of sweeping layoffs that will ultimately eliminate about 2,000 positions as CEO David Ellison pushes to trim $2 billion in costs.
The firings mark the first major restructuring since Skydance Media completed its $8.4 billion merger with Paramount Global in August, creating a new Hollywood giant under Ellison’s control.
Bloomberg reported Monday that the initial cuts will hit 1,000 staffers. A person familiar with the plan told the news site that the company wanted to move quickly to stabilize operations.
“We do not want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter,” Paramount President Jeff Shell said at a press conference following the merger.
“So, it’s going to be painful.”
The Post previously reported that insiders anticipate an epic “bloodbath” next month as management has told division heads across the company to begin compiling “kill lists” of people whose jobs are set to be terminated.
The reductions are part of an aggressive cost-cutting drive by Ellison and Shell as they attempt to integrate Paramount’s sprawling legacy businesses — which include CBS, Paramount Pictures, MTV, Nickelodeon and the Paramount+ streaming service — into a leaner structure.
Paramount Skydance is expected to disclose full details of its restructuring when it reports third-quarter earnings on Nov. 10.
As of December, Paramount employed about 18,600 full- and part-time workers worldwide and another 3,500 project-based staff, according to SEC filings.
Ellison, 42, took over as CEO after engineering the merger that folded Shari Redstone’s Paramount Global into his privately held Skydance Media. The deal was largely financed by his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who retains significant influence as a backer of the new company.
Shell, the former NBCUniversal chief who now serves as Paramount Skydance’s president, has said since August that layoffs were coming quickly — with consulting firm Bain & Co. assisting in identifying $2 billion in annual savings, much of it from the company’s struggling linear TV networks.
Before the merger closed, Paramount carried out several smaller rounds of staff reductions, including a 3.5% cut to its domestic workforce in June.
Paramount Skydance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
