Paramount Skydance, the American mass media and entertainment conglomerate, is reportedly trimming its workforce. The layoffs are part of a $2 billion cost-cutting effort under David Ellison, CEO. Around 2,000 employees from its over 18,500-strong permanent staff in the US will be affected in this exercise, which will begin next week. About 3,500 project-based employees may also be rendered jobless say media reports. The job cuts will, at first, only take place in the US, but by next month other locations are expected to follow suit after the filing of the company’s second quarter earnings.
The company was in the news about three months ago for its merger with Paramount Global in a deal worth $8.4 billion.
Since last year, there have been a string of job cuts in the media and entertainment industry worldwide. At the beginning of this year, CNN as well as NBC, the American news networks had announced they were preparing to trim their workforces. While CNBC planned to lay off 200 people from its 3,500-strong global workforce, NBC News had decided to let go less than 50. At the time it was said that about six per cent of CNN’s workforce would be impacted. At about the same time, The Washington Post had also planned to let go about four per cent of its workforce, affecting about a hundred jobs. About six months later, there was announcement regarding restructuring and trimming 10 per cent of the workforce at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group ahead of the company’s division into two units.
