Hollywood
Paramount Pictures goes in for a leaner structure
MUMBAI: A part of the Viacom conglomerate, Paramount Pictures has decided to trim down its staff by 110 people. Just a memo was issued to people who have been sent back home.
The reductions will be in the Finace, HR, IT, International home media distribution, legal and marketing departments. In a letter to its sacked employees the company CEO Frederick Huntsberry said that the layoffs were needed to manage business ‘with greater speed and flexibility as well as capitalise on opportunities in the global entertainment market’.
The company has plans to re-enter into TV. Their performances on the big screen have just been average.
Positions have been shed in their head office in LA as well as many international offices. Previously in 2011, the company laid off 120 people.
Hollywood
Netflix emerges as staff favourite in Warner Bros sale battle
Employees back Netflix deal amid fears of deeper cuts under Paramount
CALIFORNIA: Employees at Warner Bros Discovery have largely settled an internal debate over who they would rather work for if the company is sold; increasingly, the answer is Netflix.
After months of uncertainty, a growing consensus has emerged inside the company that a Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros.’ studios and HBO Max would be preferable to being absorbed wholesale by Paramount Skydance, according to media reports.
Early sentiment following Netflix’s deal announcement in December was split, with staff weighing how different divisions might fare under competing owners. Some at HBO believed Paramount plus would struggle to compete with HBO Max, while studio executives worried Netflix would hollow out theatrical filmmaking in favour of streaming-first output.
That balance has since shifted. Paramount Skydance’s aggressive cost-cutting and layoffs since closing its deal in August have sharpened concerns about job losses should Warner Bros Discovery follow the same path. Paramount has forecast more than $6 billion in cost synergies from a merger: a figure widely read inside WBD as code for deep redundancies.
By contrast, Netflix has pledged to preserve the Warner Bros. studio, lot and television operations. Assurances from Netflix co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, including commitments to theatrical releases with a 45-day exhibition window, have softened scepticism across the Burbank lot.
A turning point came on 17 December, when Sarandos and Peters visited the Warner Bros studio campus alongside WBD chief David Zaslav, addressing employees in a town hall. Executives say the direct engagement helped stabilise nerves after years of corporate upheaval following Discovery’s 2022 merger with WarnerMedia.
The sale process remains live. Warner Bros Discovery has opened a seven-day window for talks with Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison, to improve its $30-a-share offer. Netflix retains the right to counterbid should a higher proposal emerge.
For now, the WBD board continues to recommend that shareholders back the Netflix deal ahead of a 20 March vote. With earnings due days later, staff remain watchful, but many now believe Netflix represents the least disruptive future for one of Hollywood’s oldest studios.
