Skydance offers staff buyouts after Warner Bros merger

Skydance, the company formed by Paramount’s $110bn takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, is offering some employees voluntary buyouts as it looks to cut costs.

Co-chief executives David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz announced the programme in a memo to staff on Monday, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

The memo did not say which roles are eligible. Eligible staff will receive a personal offer setting out their terms and will have a set period to decide.

The memo described it as a one-time offer. Skydance has not said how many employees qualify or how much it will pay.

“As we bring our teams together, we recognize that not everyone will see their future here, and we respect that,” Ellison and Kreiz wrote.

At the same time, Skydance will require staff across the whole company to work from the office five days a week. The rule will be introduced location by location, and employees will get advance notice, according to the memo.

The buyouts are part of a plan to save more than $6bn. That will include some job cuts. However, the company expects most of the savings to come from elsewhere, such as sharing offices and merging the two firms’ streaming technology.

Paramount completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this month. It then renamed the combined group Skydance, after the production company Ellison founded.

The deal brought together studios and channels including Paramount Pictures, CBS, Warner Bros., HBO and CNN.

Ellison has used the same approach before. When Paramount brought in a five-day office rule last year, about 600 employees took severance instead, he told shareholders, Variety reported.

“We’ve seen the benefits firsthand at Paramount, and we want every part of Skydance to share in them,” the memo said of the office policy.