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Layoffs Begin Hitting Universal Music Group; Capitol Co-President Arjun Pulijal Stepping Down
As expected, layoffs began hitting Universal Music Group almost immediately after the company’s earnings call on Wednesday.
Sources say the majority of the layoffs, which are said to reach into the high hundreds, are hitting the West Coast, where many roles in the large Interscope and Capitol groups are being combined. While label chiefs are to remain in place, following the departure early this month of Capitol chair-CEO Michelle Jubelirer — who ironically was named Billboard’s Women in Music top executive just this morning — leaving the company are longtime Interscope promotion execs Brenda Romano and Chris Lopes, whose roles will be filled by Capitol’s Gary Marella; in a related move, Def Jam’s Natina Nimene is said to be overseeing all urban promotion for that label as well as Republic, Island and Mercury. In the most recent of a long string of announcements, on Wednesday the company noted in its earnings report, “… a strategic organizational redesign which will generate [around $270] in annual run-rate savings by 2026, all of which is accretive to EBITDA, through a combination of headcount reduction and other operational efficiencies.
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