Skydance Offers Buyouts as Shares Slide Under Billionaire Owner David Ellison

Skydance is offering some employees a one-time voluntary buyout as the media group moves to reduce costs following its acquisition of larger rival Warner Bros. Discovery and the assumption of its reported $80 million debt burden.

The buyout program was announced only weeks after Paramount’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery was completed on October 6.

Co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz also told staff that Skydance will introduce a mandatory five-day-a-week office policy across the company.

The moves come as Skydance shares have lost roughly one-third of their value this year.

In a memo dated October 26, the executives wrote: “As we bring our teams together, we recognize that not everyone will see their future here, and we respect that. To give eligible employees the option to move on in a way that works for them, we are introducing a Voluntary Buyout (VBO) Program.”

The memo said qualifying employees would receive individual communications outlining their personalized terms, along with a limited window in which to decide whether to accept the one-time offer.

“Please know we don’t take any of this lightly,” the memo said. “We are clear about what we’re building: a company that tells the stories people around the world love, embraces new ways to connect with audiences, and leads the next era of media and entertainment.”

“We have the talent, the creative firepower and the ambition to do it, and we will get there together,” the executives added.

Skydance is expected to employ about 53,000 people by the end of the year. However, it remains unclear how many workers will receive buyout offers or whether broader redundancies will follow.

The expected cuts at Skydance come as Seattle faces another major blow, after Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to nearly 60,000 employees.

Microsoft, the $3.95 trillion technology giant led by CEO Satya Nadella, informed more than a quarter of its global workforce about the voluntary option on Monday as it seeks to rein in spending and finance its artificial intelligence investments.

Employees in finance, human resources, Copilot, AI experiences, Xbox, and Windows + Devices are eligible for the offer, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters.

Workers in marketing, security, and commercial business roles are not included, the source said.

“This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support,” Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said in a staff memo, according to the outlet.

“It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs,” Coleman said.

Employees at vice president level and below in the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom would receive a “voluntary exit offer” based on the company’s standard severance package and their location, The Seattle Times reported.

Those who have received the offer have until December to make a final decision. 

The global company, based just 15 minutes outside of Seattle, is anticipating an acceptance rate of about three percent to five percent, a spokesperson told the outlet, which equates to fewer than 3,000 employees. 

Microsoft’s stock price briefly rose after news of the buyout came out, ending at about a 1.5 percent surge that same day. 

The major announcement also came just two days before the company reports its first-quarter financial results for its 2027 fiscal year, the report stated. 

That time period ran from July 1 through September 30.

As of June 30, Microsoft has 223,000 full-time employees globally, according to its annual filing. 

Earlier this year, the tech giant offered voluntary buyouts to around seven percent of its US workforce, which is about 9,000 staffers. 

And in July, Microsoft said it would cut 4,800 jobs across the world.

Microsoft is one of the largest private-sector employers in the Greater Seattle area, employing tens of thousands across its main campus in Redmond, as well as offices in Seattle, Bellevue and Issaquah. 

The news comes as The Emerald City continues to struggle with an economic crisis, business exodus, high job losses, public safety concerns, open-air drug use and affordability. 

Mayor Katie Wilson took office in January, and since then, she has been at the forefront of many of the issues. 

The Democrat recently faced backlash after the city returned to its typical squalor after she cleaned it up for the World Cup. 

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce captured residents’ unhappiness in its most recent index survey, which was released on October 13. 

In the survey’s October findings, 65 percent of respondents said Seattle was ‘losing the positive momentum’ on public safety and quality of life observed during this summer’s sports event. 

Of those, 40 percent said they ‘strongly agreed’ with that sentiment. The survey interviewed 700 people from September 23 to October 1.

The chamber noted that the World Cup ‘showed what Seattle can do,’ and insisted that locals were concerned over the direction of the liberal city.

Though the survey did not mention Wilson directly, 66 percent of respondents said that city leaders were not doing enough.