Disney CEO announces job cuts expected to total 1000
Walt Disney’s new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, announced the layoffs in an email to employees to streamline the company’s operations.
About 1,000 positions will be eliminated, according to a person familiar with the development.
The cuts will fall on other parts of the company, including the marketing group, which was reorganized in January, and the studio and television businesses, ESPN, products and technology, and certain corporate functions, according to the source.
Disney began notifying employees this week.
“Given the rapid pace of our industries, this requires us to continually evaluate how to foster a more agile and technologically enabled workforce to meet the needs of tomorrow,” D’Amaro wrote in an email seen by Reuters.
“As a result, we will be eliminating roles in some parts of the company.”
Like other Hollywood studios, Disney is adapting to new economic realities such as the decline of the television business, shrinking box office and increased competition.
There were also layoffs at Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Skydance.
The last major layoffs at Disney occurred in 2023, when the company announced it would cut 7,000 jobs as part of an effort to save $5.5 billion ($7.7 billion) in costs.
At the time, Disney was under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz to improve its financial performance and stem losses in its streaming business.
Disney said it employed about 231,000 people as of September, the end of the fiscal year.
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