or the proposed merger between Paramount and Skydance, which was agreed to on Monday, for CNBC, is in limbo pending approval by Paramount majority shareholder Shari Redstone. But the company revealed Tuesday that it has a plan if the deal doesn't go through — and it doesn't look great for employees.

The plan, unveiled Tuesday at Paramount's annual shareholder meeting, includes cutting costs by approximately $500 million and eliminating “duplicated teams and functions across the organization, real estate, marketing and other corporate expense categories “.

Connected: 'I'm smarter now…but also poorer': Warren Buffett says Berkshire Hathaway dumped all of its Paramount stake at a huge loss

After the former CEO of Paramount Bob Bakish fell down in April, executives Chris McCarthy, George Cheeks and Brian Robbins were put in a position to temporarily share the role as the “Office of the CEO”.

“To be clear, the $500 million in cost savings is just the beginning,” Cheeks said on the call. for CNBC.

Robbins also noted on the call that the company had been “aggressively exploring” various options that have “strong inbound interest” in streaming partnerships to join the company's Paramount+ platform, which currently has about 70 million subscribers.

“Let me be clear, we are not talking about marketing packages. This is a deep and expansive relationship,” he said.

A new streaming partnership could mimic the ways of other rivals like Hulu which was won from Disney in 2019 or HBO Max which joined Discovery+ last spring becomes “Max“Broadcasting Service.

Paramount fired one laid off 800 employees just days after Super Bowl LVIII this year in an effort to “return the company to earnings growth” amid mounting debt.

Meanwhile, last month, Warren Buffett discovered that Berkshire Hathaway had unloaded all of its shares in Paramount during the company's annual shareholder meeting, noting that it had lost “quite a bit of money” in the process.

“I think I'm smarter now than I was a few years ago, but I also think I'm poorer because I got the knowledge the way I did,” Buffett said of the decision.

Connected: Paramount is laying off hundreds of employees just days after the blockbuster hit Super Bowl LVIII

Paramount reported a strong Q1 2024 with a 51% year-over-year increase in revenue on its streaming platform Paramount+.

Redstone is expected to decide on the merger within the next week.