RE: DREAMWORKS INTEGRATION PLANNING
First, thank you for the continued patience and dedication that you have demonstrated while we have worked through the details of the division of Paramount Pictures from CBS/Paramount Television. This has been a year of tremendous transition and we now have before us the task of planning for the integration of Paramount Pictures with DreamWorks SKG.
This process of integration analysis will involve us reviewing several areas of the company and looking for opportunities to optimize our organizational structure. Our goal will be to design an organization that has the most favorable operational environment and to have this process completed shortly after the close of the DreamWorks transaction.
Specifically, we are reviewing Information Systems and the worldwide Theatrical Distribution, Marketing and Television groups. Undoubtedly, very talented employees from both DreamWorks and Paramount will be impacted as a result of this review. The company will provide an enhanced separation package to those Paramount individuals who are displaced and will take all reasonable steps to help those individuals transition to other employment opportunities within the company and externally through outplacement.
For non-contractual Paramount employees, in consideration of executing a general release, the enhanced separation package will be based on two weeks of pay for each year of service, three months of company-paid COBRA and outplacement services. Contractual employees will receive a minimum of six months separation pay, three months company-paid COBRA and outplacement services or continued payments under their contract, whichever is greater.
Human Resources representatives will be available to consult with impacted employees and to outline in full detail the benefits to which they are entitled at the time final decisions are communicated.
While these tasks are never easy, we wanted you to hear from us that this review had begun. We also want you to be confident that we will communicate as much information as we can throughout this planning phase. And, more importantly, we want you to know that we are committed to making decisions quickly and doing all we can to minimize the impact of this transaction on our workforce.