Paramount Global to lay off 800 days after Super Bowl triumph
Barely 48 hours after record-breaking Super Bowl viewership and advertising numbers, Paramount Global sent 800 employees Valentine’s Day pink slips.
No sooner had Paramount crowed that Super Bowl LVIII was the mostwatched telecast in history — with 123.4 million people tuning in — than CEO Bob Bakish announced that the looming layoffs reported in January were in fact coming to pass.
“To those with whom we are parting ways, we are incredibly grateful for your hard work and dedication,” Bakish wrote in an internal memo obtained by Deadline. “Your talents have helped us advance our mission of unleashing the power of content around the world.”
Paramount Global had about 24,500 full- and parttime employees at the end of 2022, according to CNBC. While Bakish did not specify the number of people being cut, he said those affected would know by the close of business Tuesday. The 800 people constitute roughly 3% of the conglomerate’s workforce.
Paramount Global is the parent of CBS, Paramount Pictures, Pluto TV, Paramount+ and several cable networks, among them Nickelodeon, BET and Comedy Central. Paramount has been looking at potentially merging or selling divisions to various corporate suitors.
Shares of Paramount Global fell 4% during Tuesday’s morning trading, CNBC reported.
This round of layoffs, which Bakish said stem from the need to cut costs and amp up revenue, follow a slew of recent job eliminations across the media industry. Last May, Paramount eliminated 25% of its domestic cable network staff and deep-sixed its 36-year-old MTV News division.
“While I realize these changes are in no way easy, as I said last month, I am confident this is the right decision for our future,” Bakish, who earned $32 million in 2022, told the departing employees. “These adjustments will help enable us to build on our momentum and execute our strategic vision for the year ahead — and I firmly believe we have much to be excited about.”