Fresh from Skydance Media agreeing to take a majority stake in National Amusements to secure control of Paramount Global, the company’s second quarter results are not so positive, despite Paramount claiming its first profit from direct-to-consumer streaming for Q2 2024. But first, the really bad news is that Skydance has identified $2 billion worth of efficiencies relating to the union. That figure includes the $500 million already pledged by Paramount in June, which the company has since confirmed will come from fat-trimming in marketing and communications. Paramount’s redundancy figure expects to hit 15% of US staff in technology, finance and legal divisions – most before the end of this year. The bad news behind the really bad news is that…