Skydance named Sarah Bergman and Mickey Carter to run its distribution business, while eight executives are set to leave the company. The news came in an internal memo from Skydance's president of distribution, Ray Hopkins, who said the new leaders would settle the structure of their organizations over the coming weeks.
Bergman arrives from Warner Bros. Discovery, where she ran networks and streaming distribution, and Carter comes from Paramount, where he led US distribution. The memo named seven Paramount and Warner Bros. executives to senior roles under the two.
Distribution is the unit that negotiates carriage deals with cable and satellite operators, TV stations, and streaming platforms, so it decides how much the company gets paid for its content.
The departures split evenly, four from each legacy company. Jeff Cross, who ran legal, distribution, and commercial partnerships at Warner Bros. Discovery, stays on as a senior adviser, with his duties passing to Paramount's Rick Baker.
Both Sides of the Merger Lose Distribution Leaders
Distribution executives exiting Skydance after the merger, as of Nov. 3, 2026
| Legacy company | Departing executives |
|---|---|
| Warner Bros. Discovery | Rivka Golomb, Kelly Kane, Jeff Cross, Rich Palermo |
| Paramount | David Comisar, Kurt Davis, Deena Demasi, Ken Kay |
Source: Reuters
Cost cuts target $6B against $80B of debt
Skydance, led by David Ellison alongside co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, aims to cut at least $6B of costs while managing roughly $80B of combined debt. The $110B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery closed in October, putting Paramount Pictures, CBS, Warner Bros., HBO, and CNN under one owner.
Of the savings target, $2B is meant to land in the first year. Ellison has said most of the savings would come from technology, procurement and real estate more than from staff cuts, and the company also expects large gains from sharing offices and combining the two streaming platforms.
Staffing moves started last month, when Skydance offered a one-time voluntary buyout to some employees, with eligible staff getting a personal offer spelling out terms and a deadline.
The company hasn't said how many workers qualify. Based on Paramount's and Warner Bros. Discovery's 2025 annual filings, the combined business is expected to have about 53K employees.
Everyone who stays faces a five-day office rule, phased in location by location. Ellison applied the same policy at Paramount after buying the studio last year, and roughly 600 employees took severance over it.
Los Angeles County has its own estimate from an August study done for the county's economic opportunity department and Film Office, which projects the merger could cost the county about 4.5K jobs within three years. Rebuilding the distribution team while cutting $6B of costs is the integration's first test.
