Workers of Paramount World have been by way of the wringer during the last 12 months and a half. And the uncertainty hanging over their heads is way from over.

After M&A talks with Skydance Media that began in late 2023 whipped forwards and backwards, the events in July 2024 introduced that they had reached a deal to merge. Then Paramount endured one other 12 months of ready earlier than the FCC lastly cleared the deal on Thursday. It was, to say the least, a politically fraught course of. Critics accused the media conglomerate of getting “bribed” President Trump with a $16 million fee to settle what consultants deemed a meritless lawsuit focusing on “60 Minutes.” CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Present With Stephen Colbert,” introduced every week earlier than the FCC OK’d the Skydance transaction, appeared to many to be one other concession to Trump (who stated “I completely love that Colbert received fired,” prompting an f-bomb riposte from the late-night host); CBS has maintained it was “purely a monetary resolution.”

To satisfy the FCC’s approval, Skydance stated it might guarantee variety, fairness and inclusion applications are lifeless at Paramount and that DEI wouldn’t return to the newly merged firm. Moreover, it agreed to put in an ombudsman at CBS to vet and act on “bias” complaints in its information and leisure programming — a pledge that Anna Gomez, the FCC’s single Democrat commissioner, stated represented the Trump administration “imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom choices and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Modification and the legislation.”

By means of all of this, Paramount, mum or dad of CBS, Paramount Footage, Paramount+, MTV, Comedy Central, , has undertaken a number of rounds of layoffs — and there are particular to be extra job cuts coming when Skydance formally takes management of the corporate, anticipated throughout the subsequent few weeks.

As of Friday morning, neither Paramount nor Skydance had publicly commented on subsequent steps of their merger, together with when it’s anticipated to shut or particulars about restructuring.

In a July 2024 presentation to traders after the Skydance cope with Paramount and Shari Redstone’s Nationwide Amusements Inc. was introduced, Jeff Shell (the previous NBCU CEO who is about to develop into president of “Paramount Skydance Corp.”) stated the Skydance staff working with consulting agency Bain & Co. had recognized no less than $2 billion in potential annualized value financial savings on the mixed firm.

Shell indicated a lot of these value cuts will come from its linear TV enterprise: “We all know that linear is challenged and declining. We like these companies, notably CBS. We expect it’s a very, very, very robust enterprise with extra attain than every other enterprise… Nonetheless, I feel a number of us within the enterprise know, we received to run these companies another way as they refuse.”

The place will these value financial savings come from? Shell didn’t explicitly say so, however it’s apparent that main layoffs could be wanted to get to a $2 billion annualized quantity.

Previous to Shell’s feedback, the trio of co-CEOs working Paramount — George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy — introduced a plan to slash $500 million in annual prices. Earlier this month, they stated they achieved that. That was largely by way of layoffs and restructuring that reduce 15% of its U.S. headcount, affecting about 2,000 staff by way of cutbacks final summer season and fall. Final month, the corporate reduce one other 3.5% of its home workers, representing a number of hundred extra pink-slips.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, in response to Paramount’s most up-to-date 10-Ok, the corporate had about 18,600 full- and part-time staff in 32 nations worldwide (so the headcount is decrease at present). Two years earlier, Paramount’s headcount was 24,500. In the meantime, Skydance says on its web site that it has “greater than 500” staff.

Even when, for the sake of argument, you subtracted the $500 million in value cuts claimed by Paramount’s co-CEOs from Shell’s $2 billion determine, that also signifies a really giant variety of layoffs that may very well be coming below the brand new regime. The cuts might quantity within the a whole bunch and a few Paramount staff count on it to run into the hundreds, sources say.

Management modifications at Paramount are already underway: Chris McCarthy, head of Showtime & MTV Leisure Studios and Paramount Media Networks, is about to depart the corporate following the Skydance merger shut. Paramount Footage chief Brian Robbins is predicted to exit as properly, whereas CBS CEO George Cheeks is predicted to remain on.

Upon the deal’s closing, Skydance and its monetary companions are set inject $1.5 billion in money into Paramount. Nonetheless, that’s meant to go towards decreasing Paramount’s long-term debt ($14.16 billion as of Q1 of 2025) to assist stabilize its stability sheet.

“Now that the lengthy, drawn-out sale course of is lastly nearing its finish, Skydance management is poised
to take management,” MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a analysis observe Thursday. “With that, the actual work begins — rebuilding Paramount, addressing the essential strategic questions forward, and charting a path towards a extra sustainable and aggressive future.”