Paramount to lay off 2,000 employees shortly after its merger with Skydance

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer

In long-awaited cuts just months after completing its $8 billion merger with Skydance , Paramount has begun layoffs set to impact about 2,000 employees.

Paramount initiated roughly 1,000 of those layoffs company-wide on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly comment on behalf of the company. The rest of the cuts will be made at a later date, they said.

In all, 2,000 job reductions amount to about 10% of the Paramount’s total workforce.

“These decisions are never made lightly, especially given their effect on our colleagues who have made meaningful contributions to the company,” CEO David Ellison wrote Wednesday in memo to employees, wh