Walt Disney Begins First of Three Rounds of 7,000 Employees Layoff 

Like many other companies reducing headcounts, mass media company The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has started dismissing employees. This follows CEO Bob Iger’s announcement in February to lay off 7,000 workers as the company restructures. Walt Disney is working on managing expenses and creating a more “streamlined” business by reducing employees. Notably, Iger has been making significant organizational changes since he took over from Bob Chapek in November 2022.

The CEO informed workers of the first of three layoff rounds in a memo, noting that the impacted people would be notified. Walt Disney spread the firing into three rounds as victims of the first round of employee reduction were contacted by the company’s leaders. After the first round of dismissal of their employees, Walt Disney plans additional job cuts in April. The April round will be larger, and more staff will have to leave the mass media company. Finally, the third round will commence before the beginning of the summer to make up a total of 7,000 job cuts.

Walt Disney Is Firing Employees

The layoff did not come as a shock as Iger had prepared employees for a coming job cut. The chief executive mentioned the firing while the company reported its first subscriber loss during its Q1 2023. During the quarter, the number of Disney+ global subscribers dropped by 2.4 million from 164.2 million to $161.8 million. The loss came after Disney increased the subscription price for its Disney+ ad-free plan to $11 per month. As a matter of fact, analysts expected more profound losses of about 3 million subscribers following the price change.

Noting that the target is $5.5 billion in cost savings, Iger referred to his last month’s notification:

“As I shared with you in February, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our overall workforce by approximately 7,000 jobs as part of a strategic realignment of the company, including important cost-saving measures necessary for creating a more effective, coordinated and streamlined approach to our business.”

A source confirmed that the latest development would impact employees within major divisions of Walt Disney. The source noted that the divisions that may be largely affected are Disney Parks, Disney Entertainment, corporates, and Experiences and Products. While ESPN survived the first round of layoff, the sports media conglomerate is expected to be touched in consecutive rounds. Another source mentioned television production and acquisition departments as the first areas targeted for the layoff.

Following news of dismissing employees, Walt Disney stock trades at $95.2 in after-hours. The company’ shares closed up 1.64%, gaining 1.49% in the last five days. It also has a 10.06% increase to its name since the year started and another 8.56% in the last three months.