Chaos has erupted within the hallowed halls of CBS following a bombshell all-hands meeting that saw its new billionaire boss, David Ellison, unleash a torrent of fury upon his staff.
The Skydance Media founder, who recently assumed control after a monumental $8 billion merger with Paramount Global, is said to be incandescent with rage after details of a previous internal call were leaked to the press.
A Leader Accused and Betrayed
The explosive confrontation occurred during a company-wide video conference. Ellison directly addressed the leak of a prior meeting, where he had reportedly urged employees to embrace a new era of "creative transformation" and "accountability".
His tone, however, was far from transformative. Sources describe Ellison as visibly furious, lambasting certain staff members as "liars" who had misrepresented his comments and the company's direction in press reports.
The Source of the Fury
The root of Ellison's anger stems from a New York Times article that portrayed his initial address to staff as tense and confrontational. The piece suggested Ellison had delivered a harsh ultimatum, warning employees they must not be merely "comfortable" but driven to build a "paradigm-shifting" company.
Ellison vehemently denied this characterisation. In the follow-up meeting, he asserted that his words had been twisted, telling employees that reading the article felt like "a punch to the gut." He expressed profound disappointment that the narrative of a fresh start was being sabotaged from within.
An Empire on Shaky Ground
This internal firestorm could not have come at a more precarious time for the newly formed media conglomerate. The merger was intended to position CBS and Paramount as a powerhouse capable of competing with streaming giants like Netflix and Disney.
Instead, the company is now grappling with a severe crisis of morale and a very public leadership dispute. Ellison's aggressive approach, mirroring the cut-throat style of his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is being viewed as a high-stakes gamble that risks alienating the creative talent essential to its success.
With staff now fearing a culture of suspicion and retribution, the future of one of the world's most famous media empires hangs in the balance. The question on everyone's lips is whether Ellison's brutal methods will forge a stronger company or tear it apart from the inside.
