Paramount executive Bob Bakish attends the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) 2022 at the PSD Bank Dome in Dusseldorf, Germany on November 13, 2022.
Thilo Schmuelgen | Reuters
global paramount is laying off hundreds of employees, just a day after the company announced that CBS had record Super Bowl ratings, CEO Bob Bakish said Tuesday in an internal memo to employees.
Paramount will lay off about 800 people, or about 3% of its workforce, according to a person familiar with the matter. Paramount Global ended 2022 with around 24,500 full- and part-time employees.
Affected workers will be notified on Tuesday, Bakish said in the note.
“These adjustments will help us build on our momentum and execute on our strategic vision for the coming year, and I firmly believe we have a lot to be excited about,” Bakish wrote in the note.
Paramount shares fell about 4% in morning trading Tuesday.
Deadline first reported the number of cuts in January.
Paramount Global owns a variety of assets including CBS, Paramount Pictures, Pluto TV, Paramount+ and cable networks such as Nickelodeon, BET and Comedy Central. The job cuts come as the media company considers mergers and acquisitions options. Paramount Global has held initial merger talks with Skydance Media and Warner Bros. Discovery in recent months, CNBC previously reported.
The media company had warned employees of impending cuts in a Jan. 25 internal memo. Bakish said at that time that Paramount Global needs to “operate as a more efficient company and spend less.”
Its streaming service Paramount+ continues to lose money every quarter. The platform lost $238 million in the third quarter. The company reports fourth-quarter earnings on February 28.
Spectacular Super Bowl
Super Bowl 58 on CBS was the most-watched television show in history, with an estimated 123.4 million people watching it across all platforms.
CBS charged a record average of $6.5 million for each 30-second Super Bowl ad, according to research firm Guideline.
The network made tens of millions in additional revenue because the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers went into overtime.
