[August 10] Variety: Hundreds of WarnerMedia employees being laid off as a result of a significant company-wide restructuring

[Deleted member 3812]

Variety is reporting that hundreds of WarnerMedia employees are being laid off as of today, August 10th as part of a significant company-wide restructuring with the majority of the layoffs affecting Warner Bros.:

Jeffrey Schlesinger, Ron Sanders and Kim Williams Exit Warner Bros. Amid Mass WarnerMedia Layoffs

Warner Bros. and HBO laying off roughly 800 people.

variety.com

Hundreds of employees at WarnerMedia are being let go on Monday as part of a company-wide restructuring.

Among them are Jeffrey Schlesinger, the president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution. Ron Sanders, who served as president of Warner Bros.' worldwide theatrical distribution and home entertainment as well as executive vice president of international business operations, as well as Kim Williams, EVP and CFO of Warner Bros. Entertainment, are also departing.

Impacted staffers begun being informed about the cuts at roughly 10:30 a.m. PT. Approximately 650 people at Warner Bros. are expected to be let go, according to people familiar with the matter, while HBO will cut 150 and 175 staffers.

The layoffs come in the wake of an overhaul at the media company's top ranks initiated by Jason Kilar, who took over as WarnerMedia CEO in May. One that saw the ouster of the top programming leaders at HBO Max, Robert Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly, as well as a move to consolidate WarnerMedia's production operations into a single entity. Warner Bros. chief Ann Sarnoff has been placed in charge of developing content for the new streaming service as well as the company's big entertainment focused basic-cable networks: TNT, TBS and truTV. Andy Forssell, general manager of HBO Max, was put in charge of the new entity's business operations. The hope is that the changes will streamline the business and help with WarnerMedia's new emphasis on HBO Max, its new streaming service and Netflix challenger.

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[Deleted member 32822]

JFC 800 people during the pandemic? That's terrible.

 

[Lump]

It's so fucked up to face this in an uncontrolled pandemic while going into schools reopening and the CARES Act $600/week unemployment having just ended. Talk about being failed by every institution.

 

[Deleted member 1476]

Would Greenblatt or Reilly be a get for any of the streaming competitors? Or nah?

 

[Bus-TEE]

Wow. Some big names over there are getting the heave-ho. It shows just how serious Kilar is about shaking things up.

 

[Bus-TEE]

Would Greenblatt or Reilly be a get for any of the streaming competitors? Or nah?

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Reilly ran Fox network and then TNT/tbs for years so he definitely has the chops to get a big gig somewhere, so has Bob but there isn't really anything out there the size of WarnerMedia looking for names.

I could see Reilly end up NBC-U heading up some divison (perhaps Peacock) and I wouldn't be surprised if Greenblatt ended up with a big fat production deal at WarnerMedia as part of his severance.

EDIT - Gah. Apologies for the DP.

 

[Jakenbakin]

This was called yesterday when they said they were no longer selling their gaming division off :(

 

[Alexandros]

Fucking hell, all those jobs lost.

 

[Loud Wrong]

Wonder how many jobs could have been saved if someone competent had just gotten Max on the two hardware platforms that make up 70+ percent of streaming hardware in people's homes.

 

[thefit]

AT&T who owns them has been laying off for a while now and accelerated last month with a 40% reduction company wide and has plans for more, these layoffs are the latest from the ones that started last month in other divisions. AT&T was already mismanaged as fuck and had no business getting into entertainment they are just gonna ruin a lot of properties because they have no clue what they are doing and are losing money left and right while drowning in debt.

 

[Tsuyu]

It's so fucked up to face this in an uncontrolled pandemic while going into schools reopening and the CARES Act $600/week unemployment having just ended. Talk about being failed by every institution.

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I came to the resignation that everything is working as intended. Predatory but not unexpected.

 

[Pandora012]

Wonder how many jobs could have been saved if someone competent had just gotten Max on the two hardware platforms that make up 70+ percent of streaming hardware in people's homes.

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I'm not sure that has much of anything to do with this.

 

[Curler]

This was called yesterday when they said they were no longer selling their gaming division off :(

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Didn't hear about this. I guess this would be a good thing? They stay in control of those IPs, rather than Activision or whoever taking control, or also doing their own restructuring with the division and who knows what else :/ Sucks for those Warner employees, but this might've saved people on the game division side.

 

[eathdemon]

Didn't hear about this. I guess this would be a good thing? They stay in control of those IPs, rather than Activision or whoever taking control, or also doing their own restructuring with the division and who knows what else :/ Sucks for those Warner employees, but this might've saved people on the game division side.

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selling the games devision never made sense, they tended to be rather profitable. still kinda amazed they dont just do the obvious and cut direct tv loose. thats the real drag on att.