Walt Disney’s new chief executive, Josh D’Amaro, announced mass layoffs in an email sent to company employees this Tuesday, seeking to optimize the company’s operations.
According to a person familiar with the matter, about 1,000 jobs will be eliminated.
The cuts will affect the marketing group, which was reorganized in January, and other parts of the company, including its studio and television businesses, ESPN, products and technology and certain corporate functions, according to the source.
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Disney began notifying employees this week.
“Given the fast pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly evaluate how to foster a more agile and technologically capable workforce to meet the needs of the future,” D’Amaro wrote in an email seen by Reuters. “As a result, we will eliminate positions in some areas of the company.”
Like other Hollywood studios, Disney is adapting to new economic realities, including a declining television market, declining box office revenue and increased competition. Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance also carried out mass layoffs.
The last major wave of staff cuts at Disney came in 2023, when the company announced it would eliminate 7,000 jobs as part of an effort to save $5.5 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 approximately 231,000 people in September, at the end of its fiscal year.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the staff cuts.
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