Paramount plans to cut thousands of U.S. jobs: 'These are difficult decisions to make'

LOS ANGELES - Paramount Global announced Thursday it would lay off thousands of American jobs and write down $6 billion in value of its cable television networks ahead of a planned merger with Skydance Media. 

During a conference call with investors on Paramount’s second-quarter earnings, executives outlined plans to cut 15% of the company’s U.S. workforce. 

"These actions will take place in the coming weeks and will largely be completed by the end of the year," said Paramount co-chief executive Chris McCarthy.  

"As you can imagine, these are difficult decisions to make," he added. 

The layoffs will result in what McCarthy called "redundant functions" in marketing and communications and cuts in finance, legal, technology, and other support functions.

The cuts are expected to impact around 2,000 staffers and are part of Paramount’s plan to trim $500 million in annual costs company-wide ahead of a merger with SkyDance media.

The media production company based in Santa Monica was founded by David Ellison in 2006 and specializes in films, animation, television, video games, and sports. The deal with Skydance Media is expected to close in the first half of next year.

Paramount Global wrote down the value of its cable networks by nearly $6 billion to better reflect its worth ahead of the merger, even as the company’s streaming business reported its first quarterly profit.

Paramount said its streaming service Paramount+ posted a $26 million profit in the 2nd quarter of this year after losing $424 million during the same period last year. It expects subscriber growth in the second half of the year.

"Our strong performance in Q2 demonstrates that we are delivering on our strategic priorities," read a joint statement from co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins.

Paramount's portfolio includes CBS, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount+ and Pluto TV. Paramount holds one of the industry's most extensive libraries of TV and film titles. 

Executives said the company is looking at 

a variety of additional cost-reduction plans.