The Walt Disney Company has reportedly concluded the 7,000 announced layoffs, with the last of the notices being handed out ahead of this past Memorial Day weekend, according to Variety.
What’s Happening:
- Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed a cost-cutting plan that would result in 7,000 positions being eliminated from all branches of the company.
- The first wave of these cuts began on March 27th, with a second wave launching on April 24th, bringing the total to 4,000.
- Reports indicate that the third and final round of cuts concluded with those affected being notified last Friday, ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
- Sources indicate that the company still has plans to eliminate more roles internationally over a period of time that is unspecified.
- The eliminations heavily affected the media divisions of the company, but left Disney Parks largely untouched.
- Iger announced these cuts earlier this year as part of an effort to achieve $5.5 billion in cost savings. Of that, $2.5 billion represents “non-content costs” (including labor costs) and $1 billion of those targeted cost-reductions were already underway in February.
- Disney is aiming for an annualized reduction of $3 billion in non-sports content costs, expected to be realized over the next several years
- The elimination of 7,000 positions (not all of them occupied at the time of elimination), represent approximately 3.2 percent of The Walt Disney Company’s worldwide staff of approximately 220,000 as of October 2022.