Disney To Begin Layoffs This Week, Says Bob Iger The internal memo sent to employees stated that there will be three rounds of layoffs in the beginning of the week that will result in 7000 job cuts
By Teena Jose
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Chief executive officer Bob Iger, in an internal memo to employees, has revealed that Disney will begin layoffs this week. It is stated that there will be three rounds of layoffs in the beginning of the week that will result in 7000 job cuts. In addition, the company also plans to cut down on spending.
According to a CNBC report, the job cuts will reportedly affect Disney's media and distribution segment along with ESPN and the parks and resorts division.
"This week, we began notifying employees whose positions are impacted by the company's workforce reductions. Leaders will be communicating the news directly to the first group of impacted employees over the next four days. A second, larger round of notifications will happen in April with several thousand more staff reductions, and we expect to commence the final round of notifications before the beginning of the summer to reach our 7,000-job target," stated the memo.
"For our employees who aren't impacted, I want to acknowledge that there will no doubt be challenges ahead as we continue building the structures and functions that will enable us to be successful moving forward," it added.
In November 2022, Bob Chapek, the CEO at the time, had said that, "We are limiting headcount additions through a targeted hiring freeze. As we work through the evaluation process, we will look at every avenue of operations and labor to find savings, and we do anticipate some staff reductions as part of this review."
Later in February 2023, Bob Iger returned as CEO replacing Bob Chapek, who had announced the plan to fire 7000 workers to cut costs across the company. The layoffs reportedly represented an estimated 3.6% of Disney's global workforce.
Disney has said its streaming business, led by Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, will stop losing money in 2024. Disney shares are up about 8% this year after falling 44% last year, the report further added.