“These decisions are never made lightly, especially considering the impact they will have on our employees who have made significant contributions to the company,” said David Ellison, CEO of the Paramount Skydance Corporation, in a statement.
In August, Paramount announced the layoff of 2,000 to 3,000 employees, a process set to begin between late October and early November.
Paramount began approximately 1,000 of these layoffs across the company today, according to a source familiar with the matter, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for not being authorized to publicly comment on behalf of the film studio.
The remaining layoffs will occur soon, according to the same source.
The 2,000 employees to be laid off represent about 10% of Paramount’s total workforce.
The film and digital platform departments are among the sectors affected by the staff cuts.
The restructuring of the film studio has been in the works since the completion of the company merger on August 7, Ellison stated today.
The director also indicated that the layoffs are part of the cost reduction process, which is expected to exceed $2 billion (approximately 1.706 billion euros).
Skydance Media and Paramount Global announced in August the official completion of the merger, valued at $8 billion (nearly 7 billion euros), after more than a year of negotiations.
When Skydance completed the purchase of Paramount, the new company said it would seek opportunities to optimize the business.
The operation aims to modernize the film studio’s catalog and strengthen its presence on digital platforms like Paramount+.
