Paramount Global is set to reduce about 15 percent of its US workforce in the coming weeks, according to company executives on an earnings call Thursday, as per a report on AFP.
The move comes ahead of a planned merger with Skydance Media, which had been announced in July and marked a key step forward for the movie studio after it co-produced the 2022 Tom Cruise blockbuster «Top Gun: Maverick» with Paramount.
Paramount had previously identified cost savings across the company, and the layoffs are part of its efforts to realize them, said Chris McCarthy, who heads Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks.
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Skydance had earlier identified some $2 billion in potential cost cuts at Paramount.
Paramount Global's shares rose as much as 6 per cent in early trade on Friday as investors cheered strong growth at the media group's streaming business, even as the company joined rival Warner Bros Discovery in writing down the value of its TV assets, as per a report on Reuters.
Paramount late on Thursday comfortably beat market expectations for earnings, propelled by its streaming unit posting its first quarterly profit in three years, Reuters reported.
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The streaming profit eclipsed Paramount's nearly $6 billion writedown in the value of its cable networks, a move that highlights the erosion