As the public perception battle over Paramount‘s attempt to seal its deal for Warner Bros. Discovery hits a fever pitch, the historic home of Hollywood — Los Angeles County — is throwing fuel on the fire.
The County’s department that has been studying the potential cost of the $111 billion deal to local workers and businesses is out with its latest report of the financial impact if Paramount mogul David Ellison’s merger closes.
Thousands of jobs are directly at risk as a result of the transaction across corporate, creative and production workforces, according to the Aug. 18 study from the L.A. Department of Economic Opportunity and CVL Economics, which was presented to the County‘s board of supervisors. While corporate workers could be impacted by layoffs aimed at cutting down on debt load and redundancies, the report notes, professionals like writers, producers and crew members could also become casualties of a smaller slate of projects at a combined company.
The report counted employment through the metric of “job-years,“ or a single job being performed over one year, which shows the impact of employment changes over time. For example, a job that one person holds for five years would equal five job-years. By the count, 4,500 job-years are directly at risk.
