Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. staffers fear devastating layoffs

Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. staffers fear devastating layoffs

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s $6 billion in deliberate value cuts as a part of a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery has triggered fears of devasting layoffs as two of Hollywood’s largest studios and streamers transfer to mix, according to studies.

Ellison reaffirmed his objective of $6 billion in “synergies” – or an erasure of duplicate groups – if Paramount Skydance achieves regulatory approval for its acquisition of WBD, including HBO Max, TGB, hundreds of Warner movie titles and 30 soundstages in California.

WBD’s board signed the settlement Friday morning after Netflix didn’t hike its personal provide and backed out of a brutal monthslong bidding struggle.

Paramount Skydance’s successful bid for Warner Bros. Discovery might face intense regulatory scrutiny. AP

Paramount and WBD staffers are now bracing themselves for “bloodbath” layoffs, with a Paramount worker saying there have been wordless screams at the company’s Los Angeles workplace following news of the bidding struggle final result, according to Page Six. 

Many employees are reportedly hoping for a round of voluntary buyouts before issues flip ugly.

The new conglomerate is anticipated to search for cost-cutting alternatives in Warner Bros.’ manufacturing groups, which presently make use of about 7,500 of WBD’s 35,000 whole staffers, according to Variety.

Paramount peaked at almost 20,000 workers in August, before Ellison last yr laid off about 1,000 of them with plans to chop 1,000 more.

“Think about the bloodletting of thousands of employees at CBS and Paramount, and now it will be more. Just awful,” an insider told Variety.

“It’s really going to be a shakeup for the whole community, the losses of jobs and content.”

Paramount didn’t reply to The Post’s requests for remark.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta cautioned regulatory hurdles stay.

“Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal,” the Dem said last week, though he didn’t element his considerations.

“These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny – the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.”

The Justice Department and European regulators must weigh in on the merger, too.

After observers feared that a Netflix buy of WBD belongings might thwart theatrical movie releases, some movie fanatics will seemingly “take comfort” that WBD is merging with another studio instead of the streaming large, said Seth Schachner, managing director of Strat Americas, a Los Angeles-based media consulting agency.

Ellison on Monday pledged the two studios would churn out 30 movies each yr with an exclusive 45-day theatrical release window. 

“But it’s going to be a brutal thing just with the job losses and cuts,” Schachner told The Post. 

“You’re definitely going to see some type of organizational impact. For sure, there’ll be cost cuts and they’re going to lose people in the transition.”

WBD’s board signed the settlement Friday morning. REUTERS

Warner Bros. inheritor Gregory Orr – the grandson of founder Jack Warner and an early skeptic of the proposed Netflix deal – flipped his stance after Paramount Skydance claimed victory, scared of Ellison’s historical past of intense layoffs.

Paramount’s “high debt” – a mixed $79 billion as soon as the deal goes by way of, according to Ellison – “will lead to downsizing and consolidation at Warner Bros.,” Orr told the Hollywood Reporter.

“The deal with Netflix was a good marriage,” the scion said, including that Warner “merging with Paramount Skydance is like a shotgun wedding with your dumb cousin. I fear for the health of the kids.”

There are still a number of hoops for the deal to leap by way of, including regulatory approvals from the DOJ. REUTERS

Meanwhile, TGB staffers are reportedly fearful that the deal might threaten their newsroom’s independence, after Ellison put in Bari Weiss at CBS News to deliver more conservative voices to the network.

Anchors, producers and correspondents at the lefty network are involved that President Trump will probably be on the telephone daily orchestrating CBS and TGB coverage with the Ellisons and Weiss, The Post reported last week.

“Larry Ellison is great and his son David is great,” Trump told reporters in October. “They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine, and they’ll do the right thing.”

The youthful Ellison assured Trump administration officers that he would make sweeping modifications to TGB if he purchased Warner Bros., the Wall Street Journal reported in December. His dad Larry, the billionaire founding father of Oracle, is a detailed ally of Trump’s.

The president beforehand said he wouldn’t be concerned in the deal’s review – however last week warned Netflix that it might “pay the consequences” if it didn’t fireplace former Biden official Susan Rice from its board.

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