After closing its merger with Skydance this month, Paramount is poised to enact deep staffing cuts across its various divisions, sources with knowledge of the company’s plans say. The layoffs are expected to take place by early November and will affect between 2,000 to 3,000 employees, though the numbers could vary. The timing aligns with when Paramount is scheduled to report its third quarter 2025 earnings.
The losses were expected with Paramount’s new leadership signaling publicly that they were hoping to realize more than $2 billion in cost synergies post-merger. As part of the $8 billion deal with Skydance, the company’s founder David Ellison took over as Paramount Skydance‘s CEO and chairman. He has instituted a new team of top executives that includes Jeff Shell, the former CEO of NBCUniversal, who serves as the company’s president, as well as Cindy Holland, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein who play key roles in guiding Paramount’s streaming and film operations. George Cheeks, who oversaw CBS before the deal, has remained in place. As of December 2024, Paramount had 18,600 employees globally.
The deal gives Ellison control of several prominent franchises, including “Star Trek,” “South Park,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Top Gun.” He has also signaled a willingness to invest more heavily in content. A week after Skydance took over, Paramount shelled out $7 billion for an exclusive seven-year deal for the rights to UFC. The company also recently lured the Duffer Brothers, the creators of “Stranger Things,” over from Netflix with a new four-year exclusive pact to make movies, shows and streaming programming.
But like many media companies, Paramount has seen revenues decline as viewers have shifted away from cable and broadcast, where it once made the bulk of its profits, and towards streaming, where its service Paramount+ has struggled to find a foothold.
A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment.
