Disney layoffs start this week, CEO tells employees
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Disney CEO Bob Iger on Monday said the company will begin to inform impacted employees this week about layoffs, according to an internal memo.
Why it matters: The cuts are part of a wider restructuring plan under Iger that's intended to save the company billions of dollars.
Catch up quick: Disney first announced its plans to lay off 7,000 employees — or about 3.6% of its global workforce — during an earnings call with investors in February.
- The cuts are being made alongside a broader restructuring effort that is meant to give greater authority to the company's creative leaders — essentially most of the organizational changes made under former CEO Bob Chapek.
Details: The layoffs are the first of three rounds of cuts that will take place this year, Iger said in the memo.
- "Leaders will be communicating the news directly to the first group of impacted employees over the next four days," he wrote.
- "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."
The big picture: The cuts come as Hollywood tries to reckon with newfound pressure from Wall Street to post profits, instead of growing streaming efforts at all costs.
- Disney, which lost over $120 billion of its market value in 2022, isn't alone in its job-cutting efforts. Paramount Global, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery and other major entertainment firms have also implemented layoffs as a part of wider cost-cutting measures.
Go deeper: Disney to lay off 7,000 employees amid major restructuring
