Skydance orders five-day office return and offers buyouts after merger

Skydance imposed a mandatory five-day-per-week in-office requirement across its operations and introduced a voluntary buyout program for eligible employees on Oct. 26, 2026, shortly after completing its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

The company will put the office order in place in phases by location, giving ample notice before changes take effect and providing manager support during the transition. The directive extends a policy already in place at Paramount. The memo acknowledged that the stricter policy could disrupt routines for employees working remotely or on hybrid schedules. Leadership framed in-person collaboration as vital to Skydance culture, creativity and future business goals.

The company says strong ideas emerge when people share a room.

Buyout eligibility requires at least 15 years of company experience, vice-president rank or lower, at-will employment status and a specific geographic location. Eligible locations include the US, the UK, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates. That memo offered no figures on how many staff qualify, what the payouts would be, or when the program starts.

Skydance provides FAQs and resources on the Skydance Integration Hub. The company offers HR support through My Paramount for legacy Paramount employees or Ask Employee Connection on WBD One for legacy Warner Bros. employees. Bleeding Cool News includes these support channels in the memo’s voluntary buyout section so eligible employees can review personalized terms and ask questions before deciding whether to accept.

David Ellison and Skydance co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief who joined the company earlier this month, signed the buyout memo on Monday. New York Post identifies Kreiz by his prior role at Mattel and notes he joined Skydance around the time they signed the memo on Monday.

Close to three weeks after an earlier heads-up memo, Ellison and Kreiz rolled out the voluntary buyout for certain employees. Bleeding Cool News presents the buyout rollout as the next step after the leadership’s initial warning about layoffs and workforce changes. Ellison and Kreiz acknowledged the workforce reality in the memo, saying, “As we bring our teams together, we recognize that not everyone will see their future here,” and the company has not said how many employees will leave or what the buyouts will pay.

The merged company carries about $82.5 billion in debt against $7.9 billion in cash as of June 30. Bleeding Cool News reported that leadership framed the newly combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery as carrying approximately $80 billion in debt. Bleeding Cool News places this debt figure next to the $6 billion cost-cutting plan to explain the financial pressure behind the merger integration. Management says it will lower the debt load by the end of 2029 and produce over $10 billion in yearly cash flow by 2030.

New York Post presents these goals as part of Skydance’s plan to pay down borrowings over the coming years.

Co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz told employees earlier in October that layoffs remain part of a three-year plan to cut more than $6 billion in annual costs following the merger. Ellison set a target of $6 billion or more in yearly savings from the merger within three years, driven mainly by technology consolidation and layoffs. New York Post connects this savings pledge to the company’s roughly $82.5 billion debt and $7.9 billion cash position as of June 30, and to its broader cost-cutting campaign.

Skydance completed its earlier merger with Paramount in August 2025. Management initially set a $2 billion annual cost-savings target for that deal, then raised it to at least $3 billion in November 2025. New York Post describes this as the first cost-saving goal after the August 2025 merger between Skydance and Paramount, later increased before the Warner Bros. Discovery deal.

Kotaku reported the merger was valued at $110 billion and brought the companies together under the Skydance name earlier in the month. Kotaku frames this multibillion-dollar combination as the immediate backdrop for the return-to-office and buyout announcement, suggesting Skydance wants to avoid fresh layoff headlines so soon after the deal closed.

The office order and buyouts were disclosed shortly after that deal closed. Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6, bringing HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. under the same corporate roof as Paramount, CBS and Paramount+. New York Post says the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition closed just weeks before the buyout memo and consolidated those outlets with Paramount’s existing properties under Ellison’s leadership.

Paramount Skydance said in October 2025 that it would cut about 1,000 jobs. About 600 employees took a voluntary severance package tied to an earlier office-attendance rule. New York Post places this layoff announcement within the earlier belt-tightening that followed the August 2025 merger of Skydance and Paramount. The New York Post links those severance acceptances to the October 2025 layoffs and describes both as part of the earlier cost-reduction effort connected to an office-attendance rule.

By February, management said it expected to achieve more than $2.5 billion in annualized efficiencies by the end of 2026. New York Post gives this as a management projection made in February, covering annualized savings expected by the close of 2026.

Skydance Games is an amalgamation of former WB Games and Paramount Games, and the return-to-office policy affects its games division, DC Comics and other media holdings. Last year, WB Games shut down Monolith Productions, which had been developing a Wonder Woman game, together with Player First Games, the MultiVersus studio, and Warner Bros. San Diego, a mobile development studio. WB said the studio closures were intended to shift focus to its core game franchises, including Harry Potter and Mortal Kombat.

WB Games’ value was so small that Netflix did not factor it into its bid when attempting to outbid Paramount Skydance for the full Warner Bros. portfolio last year. Kotaku reported that Vertical Slice said employees at Skydance Games received the mandatory five-day return-to-office notice and described such policies as corporate-speak for layoffs without bad press or severance payouts. Industry coverage frames the mandatory return-to-office order and buyouts as a way to reduce headcount without explicitly announcing layoffs soon after the merger.

A CBS News source described the atmosphere as ugly and said most people seem to be leaning toward buyouts because folks are tired. The buyout follows months of turmoil at CBS News, which Skydance acquired with Paramount last year. The Washington Post first reported the buyout news. New York Post credits the Washington Post with breaking the buyout news before its own report on the memo and office order.