Warner Bros Discovery to cut nearly 1,000 ad sales jobs – source

By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) -Warner Bros Discovery Inc is looking to cut up to 30% or nearly 1,000 jobs in its global advertising sales team, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The company on Tuesday started offering members of its U.S. advertising sales team an opportunity to voluntarily leave the company, the source said, adding that the global advertising sales team has about 3,000 members.

The company’s finance chief Gunnar Wiedenfels in April reaffirmed its goal of achieving $3 billion in cost savings after a $43 billion merger between Discovery Inc and AT&T’s Warner Media.

Wall Street has questioned the streaming industry’s long-term prospects after a surge during the pandemic and analysts have cited rising inflation and lower consumer spending as potential threats to the industry.

Coinbase Global, Redfin Corp and Compass Inc are among companies that announced layoffs on Tuesday.

The Information first reported the job cuts earlier on Tuesday.

The company’s shares were down marginally in extended trading.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Rithika Krishna; Editing by Maju Samuel)