Looking to save $2 billion and having handed out more than $9 billion to UFC and the South Park guys in the last two weeks, everybody knows that David Ellison’s Paramount is going to have to make some deep cuts.
Those cuts are likely going to be coming in one fell swoop, Paramount president Jeff Shell made clear Wednesday as CEO Ellison and his top team met with the press in Los Angeles 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,” Shell said, 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.”
“So, it is important for us to get done what we’re doing in one big thing and then be done with it,” added Shell, the former NBCUniversal CEO who was flanked by his new boss Ellison, plus Paramount+ leader Cindy Holland, TV Media chief George Cheeks, film heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, and COO Andy Gordon at the press event, with board member Gerry Cardinale in the crowd.
As Ellison and Shell have both said, including most recently as their August 7 sit-down with the media in New York City, Paramount’s new executive team doesn’t buy into the idea that a company can be cut into growth – a statement reiterated today.
Ellison noted that he believes the upcoming layoffs and restructuring could “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,” he said.
It should be noted that in a town hall earlier today with Paramount and Skydance staff — a total of about 18,000 employees — Ellison promised the tech-friendly leadership would be straightforward and honest over the cuts and changes as they are determined, which may be some small comfort to some.
Anthony D’Alessandro contributed to this report.
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