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Walt Disney Begins First Round of 7,000 Layoffs Amid Cost-Cutting Efforts

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BNN Correspondents
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Image Credits: Reuters

Walt Disney Co. has started laying off 7,000 employees across several of its major divisions in a bid to control costs and streamline its business. The company's entertainment, parks, experiences, and products divisions will be affected by the move. The layoffs are part of a plan to save $5.5 billion in costs and make the company's money-losing streaming business profitable.



CEO Bob Iger announced in February that the company would be eliminating the jobs, with several thousand more staff reductions planned for April and a final round of cuts starting before the beginning of summer.



The media and entertainment industry has been undergoing a retrenchment since its early embrace of video streaming. Disney, like many other established media companies, lost billions as it launched its competitor to Netflix Inc. Media companies started to rein in spending when Netflix posted its first loss of subscribers in a decade in early 2022, and Wall Street began prioritizing profitability over subscriber growth.



Many insiders anticipated the cuts before Disney's annual shareholder meeting on April 3. Details of the layoffs had been closely guarded by the company, causing anxiety among employees.



The layoffs are not expected to impact "guest-facing" services, according to officials for two of the unions representing cast members at Walt Disney World Resorts in Orlando, Florida.

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