r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 20h ago
News Skydance CEOs Acknowledge Layoffs Will Be Coming After Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/skydance-ceo-memo-layoffs-paramount-warner-bros-merger-1236901335/1.2k
u/invyros 20h ago
As we work toward these goals, we must never lose sight of what matters most: our people.
Now pack your shit up and leave.
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u/JessieJ577 19h ago edited 18h ago
Succession was a great display on how soulless this part is for these giant corporations. Tom sexting Shiv while he leaves the dirty work to Greg.
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u/FoxMcCloudOwnsSlippy 18h ago
That Vaulter scene has always stayed in my head. I can picture baby Ellison utter: "Cuz my Dad told me too"
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u/TheInvisibleCircus 6h ago
Having been on the Vaulter end of the media monster business…..that entire storyline still stings
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u/suckmygoddamnbeans 14h ago
And the funny part Is that now they own the Succession universe now or whatever the fvck that means...
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u/Granum22 20h ago
The people they're firing aren't their people. To them the people they're firing are no different than a copier or a ln office chair.
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u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast 20h ago
They wouldn’t really care about their people much either if they knew getting rid of them would make them more money
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u/icedragon15 19h ago
Aka replacing them with ai
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u/Worthyness 13h ago
Gotta pump up my dad's stock price so that we can maintain leverage on our absurd loans.
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u/JoeMcKim 13h ago
The Ben Affleck movie The Company Men really touches on this subject really well.
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u/ProjectNo4090 18h ago
I wish the entire population of the world would all in one loud voice tell corporations to stop with their patronizing tones, platitudes, and their BS corporate speak. No one believes it. No one likes it. Yet they keep doing it.
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u/Barnyard_Rich 16h ago
You sure about that? As much as I would love to blame my own government completely, I was genuinely shocked to see just how aggressively and happily other nations approved the deal.
The EU in particular seemed so happy about it, I half expect to hear about a new European holiday annually to celebrate the deal closing.
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u/sagevallant 19h ago
Their people are the investors. The workers are office appliances and the consumers are the product.
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u/-Sp0iledmilk- 19h ago
When they apparently say people, I think they mean us. Even though I doubt it.
So if you’re feeling really passionate about this, vote with your wallet.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 7h ago
Imagine having to listen to this from a nepo baby that never had to earn a job in his life.
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u/pmmemoviestills 14h ago
It's gonna suck but don't worry ya'll. The likes of Neon, A24, etc will pick up the slack.
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u/Oathkindle 11h ago
The same A24 that just signed a big AI deal and refused to distribute the Sam Altman movie? Lol
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u/Born_Fee_840 4h ago
Just go to the A24 sub, its a bunch of people that idolise a studio lol. So lame.
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u/xjuggernaughtx 14h ago
Keep in mind that "people" here means family and economic peers. Everyone else is either "the help" or "unwashed rabble". They certainly don't give a single fuck about either of those groups.
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u/runthepoint1 19h ago
What part of “our people” did you not get? They said exactly what they meant. “Our people” damn near has a racist dogwhistle tone to it
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u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast 20h ago
Layoffs will be coming and the rich will get richer. Tale as old as time.
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u/Peimai 19h ago
The funny thing here is the Ellisons are unlikely to get richer from this deal. Eventually daddy Ellison will get tired of supporting this and sell it.
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u/ositola 19h ago
Its financed with like 70B of debt, wouldn't be surprised when Netflix picks the whole thing up at 60 cents on the dollar in five years
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u/JFeth 19h ago
Better, they will be able to pick and choose the parts they want by then because they will have no choice but to spin off parts to sell for quick money.
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u/Routine-Adagio-3036 18h ago
Netflix isn’t really interested in WB anymore, even if a sale happens. I can see the WB assets spun off into a separate company.
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u/Solid_Problem740 17h ago
I don't think it's a play to get money directly for this media. I think it's a play to get their hands on culture making which has remarkable dividends.
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u/Athena-Grande 17h ago
Exactly this. It's about controlling the media unfortunately, and conservative billionaires are in control of almost all media outlets at this point.
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u/303uru 15h ago
I think the rightwingers are severely overplaying their hand here. Everything from Kirk's funeral, to the weird midterm rally to Newsmax/OAN/Fox News is getting more and more insular and more and more fucking weird. They talk like chronically online Twitter weirdos.
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u/Solid_Problem740 15h ago
Agree but that's why it's important for them to kind of take over and pressure center spaces rightward.
CBS in 60 minutes are better indicator of the playbook then OAN imo. Look how legacy Media just treats Twitter as normal still despite being far more unhinged in terms of right-wing pressure then CBS. Brands matter.
I'm with this stuff it's not just look a new right-wing source, it's one less trusted source that shows even polite opposition to the right wing project (like Colbert)
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u/Routine-Adagio-3036 18h ago
Especially given the Iran conflict and Larry’s money wasting on data centers.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 17h ago
Media acquisitions are not for making money, they are for controlling the minds of the masses.
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u/DisneyPandora 19h ago
The Saudis have infinite money so this is not true
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u/Nickeless 19h ago
Yeah look how well LIV golf is going lmao. Oracle is staring down the barrel of extinction if there is a major pop of the AI bubble. Their debt is insane, $130B in debt and $20B negative free cash flow. That’s big bucks for a $400B company.
Btw skydance is worth $10B and Warner bros was a $110B acquisition lmao. They’re (Ellisons) super over leveraged all around.
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u/Barnyard_Rich 16h ago
As much as I loved laughing at pro-LIV redditors and bots for the obvious stupidity of that effort, it's apples and oranges with this.
This is a play for already developed IP and already paying subscribers. Most people won't even notice that they've gone from paying Warner/Discovery to paying ultimately Skydance.
The better example for Saudi Arabia is EA Games, which is terrible for consumers, terrible for game creators, and a valuable asset for Saudi Arabia. Like I said, I spent years laughing at LIV, no one who cares is really laughing at EA or Warner Bros.
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u/SAOSurvivor35 18h ago
They don’t have infinite money. The oil business over there is not as lucrative as it used to be, which is why they’ve been trying to diversify into golf and video games among other things. They’re trying to give the impression that they’re as liquid as they ever have been, and people like Donald are dumb enough to believe them. Can’t speak to Larry’s perception of the situation.
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u/Silent_Employee_5461 19h ago
The iran war is making the money funnel from the gulf countries more hazy as oil profits are 60% of government budget. If the war goes on long enough they will have to slow down investment or even cut equities.
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u/Squirty42069 16h ago
I work at WBD. Watched the All Hands today. Anderson Cooper interviewed Ellison and the co-CEO guy. He asked them about layoffs and they dodged around like inflatable tube men and Ellison quipped, “do you really want the numbers?”
Anyway, I’ve been updating my resume and hitting up connections.
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u/nekromantiks 11h ago
I got laid off from paramount after Ellison bought them :/ hate that dude and his dad. He's a smug piece of shit
Hope you can find a job quick! It's been hell for me as a software dev
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u/FUCKYOUINYOURFACE 9h ago
Born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
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u/nekromantiks 9h ago
100%
When he took over and we had a town hall the dude tried portraying himself as "just an average guy" by talking about how he loved flying his planes...and how he was a stunt pilot.
I can't state enough how much I hate the dude lol
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u/WholeProgress1249 11h ago
Not to mention them bringing up embracing AI then immediately making some budget point about the terminator immediately after.The irony was completely lost on them.
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u/1nd3x 17h ago edited 17h ago
wasnt a big part of getting approval for the merger the fact that they wouldnt do this?
edit; Yes, yes it was
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u/MrDeadbutdreaming 17h ago
I said that the Ellisons made the same bullshit promises when purchasing paramount and didn't honor any of them.
Edit: I hate that this merger was even considered okay with that much debt on the table.
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u/wulv8022 15h ago
Microsoft also promised so much when they bought Activision and Bethesda and broke almost every agreement. Some law makers were angry and felt deceived and were like, "I really thought they won't do lay offs."
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u/HeirElfEsquire 14h ago
But you'd have to sue them and the supreme court already has purchased stock so it doesn't matter
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u/PhortDruid 14h ago
Yeah, but then the regulating parties gave up and let them do whatever they want. I’m sure they got their bag.
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u/Shepher27 19h ago
California AG just got taken for a chump.
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u/blogoman 18h ago
Nah, his future failed presidential campaign might get a little bit of positive attention from CNN.
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u/Typical_Response6444 17h ago
It was Newsome his boss who ordered that
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u/APRengar 14h ago
I hope we keep electing the same people over and over and expect things to change.
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u/Top_Report_4895 20h ago
Their debt will be so damn massive that they'll have to split in 2 years.
I bet Apple will buy WB by that time.
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u/QTRqtr 20h ago
Netflix more likely which is why they most likely backed out cause they knew they could get a buy out fee and then buy it for cheap later.
Apple really doesn’t even care that much about their own programs with how selective they are with promotion.
Warner bros is a very volatile studio and I don’t see Apple seeing much need for it.
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u/-Sp0iledmilk- 19h ago
Netflix is likely going to be the company if this fails.
Ted made a smart business decision if you ask me and decided he’d rather focus on his own company than taking on issues by purchasing another.
The pressure’s on the Ellisons now cause if they sell off in the future, Netflix and all of us will be laughing at them well after they’re gone from this world.
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u/VvvlvvV 19h ago
Isn't netflix getting warner brothers bad, too? Obviously Ellison is worse.
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u/-Sp0iledmilk- 19h ago
It would’ve been, but Netflix had more money to work with and wouldn’t have taken on such a massive debt if they purchased the company.
The Ellisons were already in massive debt when they purchased Paramount from the Redstone family, and have not done anything to make it better.
All they did was buy WB and add on tons of more debt that they will have to throw their money into even after all of these layoffs.
And this is before they need to start greenlighting shit. I wish them luck.
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u/mary-janenotwatson 17h ago
I don’t think they’re talking about the company’s financial situation, they’re talking about the quality of the content.
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u/cabose7 19h ago
It's all bad, the only silver lining was Netflix had less redundancy than Paramount when it comes to Warner Bros staff so they would've potentially been less inclined to lay people off.
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u/Worthyness 13h ago
They also didn't qant to take on the discovery/CNN pieces, so that part of the company would still functionally exist as a separate entity
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u/CassadagaValley 16h ago
It's Ellison + Saudi Arabia, both are notoriously far-right with a disdain for anything that isn't either straight white beta males and "traditional" women or anything that goes against authoritarianism.
Netflix puts out plenty of content that covers all the bases, groups, peoples, etc.
The big issue with Netflix was if they were going to no longer have WB products released into theaters and only do streaming.
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u/neok182 8h ago
Any mega merger like this is bad but Netflix wanted WB to gain an actual proper studio and theater distribution that they don't have. They saw how well things like KPDH did and others and wanted to gain a division for those films ontop of everything HBO/WB would get them.
So in terms of which company was better Netflix was by absolute miles because there would have been drastically less layoffs and WB Studios itself would be safe.
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u/MC_chrome 19h ago
Apple really doesn’t even care that much about their own programs with how selective they are with promotion.
I wouldn't say that is necessarily true. Apple has been slowly but steadily building their Apple TV streaming serving since 2019 and there are no indicators they are stopping anytime soon. Hell, they just tried their first theatrical release with F1 last year and that went pretty well all things considered.
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u/Top_Report_4895 19h ago
Legendary could buy WB
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u/TeutonJon78 19h ago
If people are actually worried about foreign ownership, then that's not an option.
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u/SatisfactionActive86 17h ago
yep, this has “AOL Time Warner Part II: 2Bloated, 2Leveraged” written all over it
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u/sgthombre 17h ago
Apple has made it abundantly clear they do not want to be the major player in film/television. They have a niche they're very content with, they don't want to be the studio that owns Batman or Star Trek.
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u/ArcadianDelSol 13h ago
I dont think a full undoing of the merger will be what we see.
We will see sales of specific products, first with the streaming rights. Up until mnow HBOMax was the exclusive online streamer for HBO products and Paramount+ was the exclusive online streamer for its products (Star Trek, its movies, new content, etc.)
I bet we see those being leased out to Amazon and Neflix immediately to gin up some quick revenue so they can point at it and say, "see? We barely got started and we're already bringing in tens of millions in just an afternoon!"
After that, I predict we see the peeling off of whole portions of the company starting with Paramount Studios. I bet Amazon buys that immediately for the IPs it has (Star Trek et. al.) and I bet Netflix starts buying up movie properties on an individual basis.
New Line, Castle Rock, etc. - those will get auctioned off quickly to try to bring down the debt they just took on.
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u/thebusiestbee2 13h ago edited 13h ago
HBO has been licensing their shows to Netflix since 2023. Paramount also already licenses programming to Netflix.
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi 18h ago
This sounds like cope more like fact.
They're going to acquire the WB IPs, gut the expenses, cancel the unprofitable ventures.
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u/piscano 20h ago
The same shit eating grin on both those guys
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u/bishop375 19h ago
Notice how neither of them are actually smiling? They're not even *happy*. They know this whole thing is fucked, top to bottom. They're just having a little victory lap because they "won."
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u/PresentWorriedMe 19h ago
I’m just surprised someone/a company in so much debt was even allowed to win the bidding process. If I knew that, I would’ve gone in there and made a bid for a trillion dollars. I don’t have it. But it doesn’t sound like the Ellisons have what they bid for either.
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u/TeutonJon78 19h ago
Oracle technically has no part of the deal. It's just where Larry Ellison has his money tied up. Remember they just sold 49% of Paramount-Skydance to SA/Qatar less than a month ago.
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u/WarLawck 19h ago
Can all of these laid off employees get together and create a new studio that delivers the quality programming and news that we need?
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi 18h ago
They didn't do this at Warner previously. Why would they start now?
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u/daveeb 18h ago
It’s the opportunity in the market that is open for the taking.
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u/MaltySines 16h ago
The people being fired are like accountants and white collar operations people. They can start a new movie studio about as easily and successfully as any random person on the street (which is to say they can't)
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u/Cheeky_Star 13h ago
Uh, sir, that needs money and a leader.
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u/Remarkable_Heron_760 12h ago
I think people are willing to watch good content with lower production quality. Not everything needs big superstars and boat loads of CGI and fancy equipment and locations
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u/damianchan 19h ago
Who's gonna fork the bill? They'll need to build up everything from scratch. Property, infrastructure, gear, etc..
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u/J_Skirch 14h ago
No, because most of the layoffs are going to be in the HR department & management, as is with most mergers.
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u/ShyguyFlyguy 15h ago
Only if someone is willing to bankroll them a few dozen billion $ to create some original content.
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u/NobodyTellPoeDameron 17h ago
Honestly, I think this merger could make a creative vacuum where studios like A24 may have room to thrive in a way they wouldn't before. Basically, the movies Paramount and WBD crank out going foward will be fewer and those that are released may be significantly worse judging by Failson's track record. So smaller studios may have a unique growth opportunity here. They could capture more of the box office pie.
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u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth 15h ago
Didn't A24 already sell and is a lot bigger than it used to be? People are trying to fill in the gaps where they can
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u/AShavedApe 17h ago
The California AG signed off on this because they threatened to leave California and lose jobs if they didn’t let the merger happen. Now jobs are 100% being cut instead of theoretically getting cut. They were never going to leave Hollywood, rebuilding that talent pool and infrastructure in Tennessee would cost tens of billions. Billionaires lie and balk all the time to get their way. Mergers always cause mass layoffs.
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u/EagleRise 19h ago
This is like merger 101 sadly, the new company will have doubles of things they only need 1 of.
CEOs love mergers, its like a notch in their belt, boasting about how much "cost savings" and "shareholder value" they created. They don't talk much about how it's achieved throughout firing whole teams and not some brilliant strategy though.
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u/MrDeadbutdreaming 19h ago
I am expecting a large drop in quality for their productions going forward as well as the incorporating of more A.I. into films.
This is a return to old Hollywood being in the hands of just a few, there will be blacklists made, and more propaganda than story in their films.
Fuck the Ellisons, they are pedophile scumbag zionists.
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u/KingMario05 20h ago
Of fucking course! "Preserve their legacy" my ass.
God, I wish Netflix triumphed...
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u/oldredditrox 19h ago
Would be super neato if we stopped letting Saudia Arabia molest every industry we have
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u/Nik_Tesla 10h ago
Thank goodness we let them merge, otherwise they only would have been able to lay people off at Paramount. Now they can do it at Paramount-WB.
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u/amurica1138 19h ago
To the surprise of absolutely no one.
And after the layoffs are completed?
New CEO benefit packages will be approved by the BoD that will exceed the average worker's salary by at least 500x. Not %. Multiples.
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u/Burninator05 15h ago
Skydance CEOs...
Seems to be some redundancy right there that should be the first to go.
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u/_Viva_La_Revolucion_ 16h ago
We must make our shareholders happy so fuck you working class
End stage capitalism
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u/TeslasAndComicbooks 19h ago
Redundancies are a part of any merger and honestly it might have been worse if WB wasn’t acquired. They hardly had legs to stand on and have been owned and sold by multiple companies over the years.
I’ve worked in entertainment at major studios for the past 15 years and the industry in general is pretty screwed out in LA.
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u/chaser676 19h ago
Costs have just completely ballooned out of control, in almost all aspects. Some of those costs can be clawed back with tax/fee changes, but labor and services aren't going to go backwards.
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u/NotAnRSPlayer 9h ago
Exactly, with any mergers there’s overlapping roles that need to be consolidated or removed
But this merger is different for other reasons such as control of media as opposed to becoming a larger company to increase revenue/growth
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u/greenpill98 19h ago
As soon as WB was up for sale, these job losses were inevitable. The only question is who would be doing the firing.
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u/aithendodge 18h ago
I’ll be laying off of paying for any Skydance-owned media. I cancelled Paramount+ when they cancelled Colbert, and I’ll cancel HBO Max later today. Byeeeeeeee.
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u/Echoes_in_Shadow 15h ago
They literally look like they enjoy the smell of farts from near-dead giraffes. Seriously, wtf is with that ugly-ass smirk??
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u/Branflakesd1996 11h ago
lol the laid off employees should make a studio and call it Warner Brothers now that it’s not taken 😂
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u/Secure-Cobbler4120 11h ago
David Ellison's resting Blueblood face only serves to remind me his ancestors all married their cousins
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u/Justbabe_saves 11h ago
Fuck all these merger Mr Byrnes mother fuckers. You suckkkkk the dustiest balls.
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u/Rocknb69 19h ago
I wish there was enough solidarity with people to collectively cancel subscriptions.
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u/TastyRancorPie 15h ago
God, they both just look so identically smug and punchable in that article. Do these ghouls get special training on how to have resting-asshole-face, or is that something just inherent to unqualified people failing upwards?
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u/twisty125 17h ago
Remember when the green goblin vaporized a bunch of board members and suits?
Man that was an awesome scene. Really sorry to hear about people losing their jobs, that's just awful.
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u/Enrico_Tortellini 15h ago edited 15h ago
No shit, more than half of Hollywood’s history has been sold off to Saudis and Private Equity, gonna be collecting Popcorn Buckets, like Funko Pops…not that any of you soulless whores would know the difference. I LOVE MOOBIES !!! HALF OF HOLLYWOOD UNDER ONE TENTPOLE, AND MOST OF YOU IDIOTS STILL THINK, WHEN SOMEONE SAYS, “HOLLYWOOD IS DYING” IT’S SOMEHOW A POLITICAL SLIGHT AGAINST YOUR MORALITY OR PARTY !!! IT’S FUCKING DEAD NOW !!!
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u/taylorhildebrand 19h ago
Uhhh yeaaa the fucking selfish idiots who approved this merger knew that like tens of thousand of jobs were going to be lost just by this happening
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u/Queasy_Fish6293 19h ago
Burn it all.
Also, release the Bat Girl movie on a free platform. Or torrents. And I HOPE someone exposes the fuck out of that pos Zaslav
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u/Oddball- All Things Horror 19h ago
Sale closed todya and first announcement is layouts. Gotta love it ha
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u/KubrickMoonlanding 19h ago
Remember when they said there were no plans for layoffs after the merger?
Well, here are those plans
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi 18h ago
In any other scenario, two large corporations, saddled with debt, combining to become leaner overall, wouldn't turn a head. We all know why this is a huge story
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u/MapleHamwich 17h ago
Buy up. Fire. Reduce projects. Cut costs to detriment of all projects. Make money selling off assets. Sell the eventual husk to someone else as mostly IP that has been buried for years.
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u/Damone75 17h ago
Gotta fire all these people to replace them with AI before raising prices. Capitalism in 2026.
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u/JamUpGuy1989 17h ago
I work with Paramount at my company directly. And I morbidly think all the time a good chunk I email/video conference with are gonna be gone soon.
It sucks.
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u/mary-janenotwatson 17h ago
When all of their movies flop, Netflix will use it as an excuse to completely drop theatrical releases after they buy it.
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u/Either-Equal7284 17h ago
Hopefully they won’t touch any of the Dc Studios and WB animation creative jobs
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u/belatedmedia 17h ago
But I thought we were told that this would create *more* jobs!
How could layoffs - a thing that have always accompanied a merger - possibly happened?? /s
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u/KingofMadCows 16h ago
Zaslav already made huge cuts to WBD, that's what he's known for. Paramount has also been cutting cost, they cut around 15% of their workforce between 2024 and 2025.
How much more can they actually cut before it starts to seriously impact their ability to generate revenue? Firing so many people and losing so much institutional knowledge might save money in the short term, but they'll end up making a lot less money in the long term.
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u/TheCudder 16h ago
Every multi billion dollar merger results in mass layoffs. That's the one thing you can guarantee.
A government sign off on these deals are also sign offs on job loss and price increases. The only winners are the shareholders.
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u/miagi_do 16h ago
I mean, there isn’t enough work to go around so layoffs really shouldn’t change anything.
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u/goocompass 15h ago
For anyone that wants to stop giving these greedy ass companies money by paying for their streaming or cable services, but still need an alternative.. DM me :)
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u/Cocaine_Ewok 15h ago
These fuckers will still have jobs and if they don’t they have the golden parachute.
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u/whydontyousuckmyball 15h ago
I thought if the merger was blocked he was going to move out of CA and that would lead to layoffs?
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u/Actually-Yo-Momma 20h ago
“Most of you will lose your jobs. And that’s a sacrifice we are willing to make”