Disney Lays off 7,000 Employees Following Reorganization Announcement

Disney has announced that it was laying off over 7,000 employees with CEO Bob Iger announcing a reorganization of the company.

The cuts in employees follow similar moves after other US tech giants cut back on their hiring spurt that started at the height of the pandemic.

“I do not make this decision lightly,” mentioned Iger.

In the 2023 annual report, Disney mentioned that it employed over 190,000 people worldwide, with 80% full-time employees.

“We are going to take a really hard look at the costs for everything that we make, both across television and film,” said Iger.

“Because things in a very competitive world have just simply gotten more expensive.”

The company has stated its streaming service saw its first-ever decline in subscribers in the previous quarter as consumers are lessening their spending.

Disney+ subscribers dropped by 1% to over 161.8 million customers last December 31. Analysts had anticipated the drop and the share price of Disney jumped to more than 5% in post-session trading.

“There are still big challenges ahead for Disney,”  said Paul Verna, Insider Intelligence principal analyst.

“Its traditional TV business is eroding, its streaming operation is not yet profitable, and it’s facing pressure from an activist investor to rein in costs and plan for a post-Iger succession.”

Disney is planning on reviewing their content volume and the pricing of its streaming platform.

“We were in a global arms race for subscribers,” said Iger.

“I think we might have gotten a bit too aggressive in terms of our promotion, and we are going to take a look at that.”

Source: Philstar