• Variety, Monday, March 2, 2009 9:32 AM

Weighed down by debt and shrinking ad revenue, Hispanic media giant Univision has pink-slipped 300 employees, roughly 6% of its workforce. The layoffs comes in the wake of January's court settlement with programming supplier, Mexican conglomorate Televisa.

The two companies were locked in a protracted battle over royalty payments and other issues. Univision, which commands nearly 80% of the U.S. Spanish-language TV audience, agreed to pay Televisa $25 million for royalties.

A consortium of equity investors, led by Haim Saban, acquired the company for $13.7 billion in 2006 and leveraged it with debt of nearly $11 billion. In recent months, Univision has been quietly trimming its top-heavy executive ranks. Most recently, chief marketing officer Maryam Banikarim departed and has not been replaced.

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