Walt Disney Company recently announced on a call with investors that, as part of an effort to save $5.5 billion in costs, it intends to cut 7,000 jobs from its global workforce – or 3.6% of all employees.
The restructuring plan seeks to make Disney more efficient while also bolstering the company’s streaming business, and will aim to return greater authority to its creative leaders, who will now be accountable for the content produced when it comes to how it is distributed and monetized, and marketed.
Three main divisions were revealed – one led by Dana Walden and Alan Bergman overseeing the entertainment activities; another led by Jimmy Pitaro managing ESPN networks, ESPN+, and international sports channels; and a third helmed by Josh D’Amaro responsible for Disney’s theme parks, resorts, cruises, consumer products, games and publishing businesses.
After initially suffering a 44% drop in stock market value due to financial pressures from Wall Street during 2022 and many tech giants such as Amazon announcing massive layoffs at around the same time, Disney rebounded with an after-hours trading hike of 5%, after uncovering cost savings of approximately $2.5 billion already underway and expecting roughly an additional $3 billion in savings over the coming years (excluding sports).
Bob Iger confirmed their commitment to long-term profitability within the streaming business by 2024, thereby ending any talk about potentially spinning off ESPN instead.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
