Leadership1 publisher3 min readPublished
Skydance makes Mattel's cost-cutter Ynon Kreiz co-CEO to find $6 billion in savings
Skydance has made former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz co-CEO, expected to find $6 billion in savings over three years, Business Insider reports. David Ellison keeps the studio and talent deals, leaving Kreiz the cuts and the layoffs expected with them.
The Board Room · Leadership desk
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What happened
- At Mattel, Kreiz laid off 22% of the toymaker's workforce in one go and engineered the Barbie film deal with Warner Bros. and Margot Robbie.
- One of Kreiz's friends compared him to Gunnar Wiedenfels, the former WBD finance chief known for cost cuts, telling Business Insider: "He's Gunnar."
- Because David and Larry Ellison have effective control of Skydance, Kreiz's main outside pressure will come from the holders of its $80 billion in debt.
- Kreiz's first-year pay package at Skydance totals $47.5 million, according to Business Insider.
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Why it matters
- exposure Staff across the former Paramount and WBD businesses are at risk before any headcount is set, since Business Insider expects the savings to involve meaningful layoffs.
- precedent Putting the cost-cutter in a co-CEO seat makes him more visible than Wiedenfels was as WBD's finance chief, so public blame for cuts is likelier to land on Kreiz as well as Ellison.
- constraint Delivering all $6 billion would equal 7.5% of the $80 billion debt, so the savings on their own cannot settle bondholders' worries about Skydance's prospects.
Ellison's own title did not change. He remains CEO, not co-CEO, Business Insider reported, and Kreiz, though he shares the top title, is "definitely not running the place" [13]. Ellison engineered the acquisitions of Paramount and then WBD, backed by his father Larry Ellison's fortune [13]. The two are expected to co-host a press event on Tuesday night [17].
Spread evenly, the $6 billion target comes to $2 billion a year for three years [5][19]. Business Insider wrote that the job "will likely involve meaningful layoffs" [6]. A reporter's assessment is the strongest thing in the record pointing to deep cuts across the merged Paramount and WBD workforce. The report does not include a headcount figure or say how much of the saving would come from payroll. Kreiz's Mattel layoff shows he has made a cut of that kind once, at a toymaker [3].
The WBD comparison explains how the work is divided. Wiedenfels, WBD's former finance chief, cut that company's costs through layoffs and by mothballing TV shows and movies [7]. Few people outside the company knew who he was. The attention and the anger went to David Zaslav, the chief executive [9]. At Skydance, according to Business Insider, Ellison will be the public face who schmoozes with stars, and Kreiz will be "the one getting his hands very dirty" [10].
The split protects Ellison's standing with talent. It costs the company a single point of accountability for what gets made. Deals with studios and talent stay with him [4]. If Kreiz uses Wiedenfels's methods [7], the executive shelving a show or film will be a different person from the one who signed its talent.
Kreiz's audience is the debt market. The Ellisons' control spares Skydance the shareholder pressure that troubled Zaslav at WBD, and Business Insider reported that the bondholders may already be worried about the company's prospects [14].
The case against Kreiz sits in the same Mattel record. He cut the toymaker's costs but struggled to grow it: Barbie sales rose after the 2023 film, fell over the next two years and returned to pre-movie levels, and Mattel's stock has been listing for some time [12]. Disney also never worked out what to do with Maker, the web video startup it bought for $500 million with Kreiz as its chief executive [18]. The Skydance job asks Kreiz for savings and leaves the dealmaking with Ellison [4]. Kevin Mayer, the Candle Media co-CEO who negotiated with Kreiz while at Disney, said: "He's unflappable, and is willing to take on the heaviest of heavy lifts" [11].
The decision puts deals and cuts with two different executives. The first thing to watch is where the $2 billion a year comes from [19]. Whether it is mostly staff or shelved shows and films will show how closely Skydance follows the WBD approach [7]. Skydance did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment, and Kreiz declined to comment [16].
What to watch
- Whether Ellison and Kreiz attach a headcount figure or timetable to the $6 billion target at Tuesday night's press event.
- Whether early savings come mainly from layoffs or from shelving TV shows and films, the two tools Wiedenfels used at WBD.
- How holders of Skydance's $80 billion in debt respond to the appointment and the savings plan.