James Gunn’s exit might not be the only shake-up happening at Skydance.
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The David Ellison-led media empire Skydance, formed from the merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, is eyeing real estate cuts as it looks to move employees out of rented offices and into company-owned properties in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and London, CoStar News reported. The potential moves are part of an effort to save billions of dollars in annual spending.
Skydance co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said on a Monday earnings call that the company hopes to achieve at least $2.2B in savings by reducing real estate and facility overhead at Warner Bros. and Paramount.
“There's also a very meaningful opportunity to rationalize our office footprint,” Kreiz said. “This includes consolidating our real estate across major markets."
He said Skydance has five sites in New York, seven in Los Angeles, and multiple sites in Atlanta and London.
Skydance, which completed its $111B merger last month, controls about 13M SF across 120 properties on top of “millions of square feet” leased from third-party landlords, according to CoStar. In New York, Paramount has a lease for 1.6M SF at One Astor Place at 1515 Broadway through 2031 and has another 185K SF at 555 W. 57th St. through 2029.
Paramount also has 797K SF in Columbia Square in Los Angeles' Hollywood through 2028 and offices in Santa Monica, California, through 2034, CoStar reported.
Third-party landlords with exposure to Skydance units include Kilroy Realty, Worthe Real Estate Group and Stockbridge, CoStar found.
Earlier this week, Skydance announced that it was replacing DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran with former Marvel producer Jeremy Latcham, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Ellison also outlined other cost-cutting measures, including bundling HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming services together next year, in an effort to eliminate $6B in expenses in three years as it wrangles with $80B in debt.
Skydance in its merged form spent about $8B in corporate overhead, including real estate, this year, according to the LA Times.
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