Looking to save $2 billion and having handed out over $9 billion to UFC and the South Park guys in the last two weeks, everybody knows David Ellison’s Paramount is going to have to make some deep cuts.
Deep cuts that likely are going to be coming in one fell swoop, the company president made clear today as CEO Ellison and his top team meet with the press in LA a week after officially taking over from Shari Redstone in an $8.4 billion acquisition.
“We do not want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter,” Jeff Shell said, with an obvious swipe at the past Paramount regime and its water torture approach to cost and staff cutting. So, it’s going to be painful. It’s always hard, but we don’t want to be a company that every quarter is laying people off,” the ex-NBCUniversal CEO added.
“So, it is important for us to get done what we’re doing in one big thing and then be done with it,” Shell stated, flanked by his boss Ellison, plus Paramount+ leader Cindy Holland, TV Media chief George Cheeks, film heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, and COO Andy Gordon, with board member and Gerry Cardinale in the crowd.
As Ellison and Shell have both said in the past, including as recently as their August 7 sit-down with the media in NYC, Paramount’s new executive team don’t buy into the idea that a company can be cut into growth – a statement reiterated today.
Ellison noted that he believes the layoffs and restructuring his “exceed” the $2 billion target. “But in terms of specifics and timelines, we’re in day 7, and I hope you can respect when we get there, we’re going to talk to team members first before talking to anybody else.”
It should be noted in a town hall earlier today with Paramount and Skydance staff, which is around 18,000 employees, Ellison promised the tech friendly leadership would be straightforward and honest over the cuts and changes as they are decided.
