An empty open-plan office with rows of desks and chairs

Five Days in the Office or a Buyout: Skydance Makes Its Offer

Hollywood’s newest giant is trying to shrink without the headline of mass layoffs, and the first move puts the choice on employees.

Vault Editorial
2–3 minutes

Hollywood’s newest giant is trying to shrink without the headline of mass layoffs, and the first move puts the choice on employees.

The memo was polite. The message was not subtle. Weeks after closing its roughly $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, Skydance told employees on Monday that it would require them in the office five days a week and that some of them would be offered a one-time voluntary buyout, TheWrap reported.

“Not everyone will see their future here, and we respect that,” co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz wrote. Eligible staff will get individual letters spelling out their terms and a window to decide. The company has not said how many people qualify or what the packages are worth, and Skydance declined further comment, according to Fast Company.

The office mandate lands harder on one side of the merger than the other. Paramount-Skydance already required five days in person, while Warner Bros. Discovery asked for three, Fast Company noted, so the change mostly reshapes life for the WBD workforce. The policy will roll out in phases, location by location.

Behind the courtesy sits a large number. Skydance is targeting more than $6 billion in cost savings, and executives have said layoffs will be part of it, though they expect most of the savings to come from other places, such as consolidating real estate and merging streaming technology, per TheWrap. The combined company also carries almost $90 billion in debt, Fast Company reported.

There is a recent precedent. After its $8 billion takeover of Paramount, Skydance announced about 2,000 job cuts, roughly a tenth of the global workforce, The A.V. Club recalled. A buyout round gives the company a way to reduce headcount before it has to decide who goes.

Skydance is not cutting alone. Netflix said this month it would eliminate about 1,000 jobs, around 6% of its staff, the Associated Press reported, even as it described its business as strong. What to watch now is the take-up rate. If too few people accept the buyout, the layoffs Skydance has already acknowledged will have to cover the difference.

Sources

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