Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. staffers fear devastating layoffs following merger: reports

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s $6 billion in planned cost cuts as part of a merger with Warner Bros.Discovery has triggered fears of devasting layoffs as two of Hollywood’s largest studios and streamers move to combine, according to reports.Ellison reaffirmed his goal of $6 billion in “synergies” – or an erasure of duplicate teams – if Paramount Skydance achieves regulatory approval for its acquisition of WBD, including HBO Max, CNN, thousands of Warner film titles and 30 soundstages in California.WBD’s board signed the agreement Friday morning after Netflix failed to hike its own offer and backed out of a brutal monthslong bidding war.Paramount and WBD staffers are now bracing themselves for “bloodbath” layoffs, with a Paramount employee saying there were wordless screams at the company’s Los Angeles office following news of the bidding war outcome, according to Page Six. Many workers are reportedly hoping for a round of voluntary buyouts before things turn ugly.The new conglomerate is expected to look for cost-cutting opportunities in Warner Bros.’ production teams, which currently employ about 7,500 of WBD’s 35,000 total staffers, according to Variety.Paramount peaked at nearly 20,000 employees in August, before Ellison last year laid off about 1,000 of them with plans to cut 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.Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.

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Never miss a story.“It’s really going to be a shakeup for the whole community, the losses of jobs and content.”Paramount did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.California Attorney General Rob Bonta cautioned regulatory hurdles remain.“Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done de...