Disney To Undergo More Layoffs With Divisions Eyeing Up To 20% In Cost Savings

The Walt Disney company is laying the groundwork for more cuts, with thousands poised to be impacted.

According to sources, the new round of layoffs will be made across multiple divisions, including TV networks and the motion picture studio, at varying amounts. As is customary in the run-up to staff reductions, managers of the affected teams have been given targets, with some asked to achieve as much as 20% in annual cost savings, we hear.

Disney declined to comment on the latest cuts, first reported by Bloomberg, whose exact timing is unclear.

There have been ongoing layoffs at Disney throughout the year following Josh D’Amaro taking over as CEO from Bob Iger on March 18. In April, 1,000 roles would be eliminated, followed by several hundred in July, with Pixar and National Geographic among the divisions most effected.

The process accelerated in August when the entertainment conglomerate extended a Voluntary Early Retirement Offer to longtime executives. That process has now been completed, with some sources indicating that more eligible managers opted for the package than anticipated. The VERO was always considered a precursor to layoffs.

“This is one of several actions we’re taking to reshape our organization, including involuntary staff reductions that have already begun in some areas and will continue into next year,” Disney EVP and Chief People Officer Sonia Coleman wrote at in memo back in August.

Since then, a couple of hundred employees were laid off in late September, largely in areas such as tech and HR, and last week, another 100-200 employees in its Experiences division were pink slipped, the majority of them at Disney’s Imagineering campus in Glendale.

“I think like all of our similarly situated competitors, and certainly all of our competitors in the tech industry, there is a need to constantly evaluate how you’re structured,” Dana Walden, President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company, said about the continuous layoffs during Bloomberg’s Screentime conference last month. “Technology set their sights on our business, and we must survive and thrive and grow. That’s what we’re going to do.”

D’Amaro has put a focus on cost reductions since ascending to the top Disney job earlier this year. At the most recent Disney earnings call, he spoke about using some of the savings to invest in growth areas.

“When our teams work smarter, we can serve more people across our parks and digital platforms and do it more cost-effectively,” he said. “That frees up capital to reinvest aggressively in what drives long-term value: new content and next generation guest experiences, as well as technology infrastructure that keeps Disney at the forefront of entertainment.”

Disney’s global head count stood just north of 230,000 as of the end of the most recent fiscal year.