Skydance offers voluntary buyouts to some employees

Skydance Corp. is offering some employees a one-time voluntary buyout, a move that comes nearly three weeks after Paramount Skydance closed its $111-billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The David Ellison-led entertainment giant, which took the Skydance name when the deal closed Oct. 6, sent a memo Monday to employees, noting that the buyout offer was only for “eligible employees” and that those who qualified would receive individual communication from the company.

“As we bring our teams together, we recognize that not everyone will see their future here, and we respect that,” according to the memo from Ellison and Co-Chief Executive Ynon Kreiz.

The memo did not specify a target number of employees for the buyout. The note also said employees across Skydance will be required to come into the office five days a week, and that this transition will take a “phased approach by location.”

Ellison already instituted a five-day-a-week in-office policy at Paramount, shortly after his Skydance acquired the historic studio last year.

“In a world of endless choice and fierce competition for attention, we don’t just want to succeed,” the memo states. “We want to win.”

The buyouts arrive as the combined company is expected to lay off hundreds, if not thousands, of people while it begins to integrate the two operations.

Skydance now carries more than $80 billion in debt from the acquisition. Before the deal closed, Paramount had promised Wall Street it would slash $6 billion in costs over three years. The company expects to make $2 billion of those cuts within a year.

Ellison told reporters earlier this month the “synergies” will not “primarily” come from labor, but instead from tech, procurement and “real estate optimalization.” He has also promised to invest at least $30 billion a year in film, TV and game content, setting up a delicate balance between the cost cuts and new cash infusions.

An August report commissioned by the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity and the L.A. County Film Office estimated 4,500 jobs in L.A. County could be eliminated over a three-year period as a result of the takeover.