- Disney will lay off 7,000 employees by this summer
- The company is going through a difficult period and hopes to return to profitability
- Back at the head of the company, Bob Iger has sketched out ways to revive it
“We do not take lightly the difficult reality of the departure of many colleagues and friends from Disney”. In an internal letter, Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, presented a layoff plan to employees. It confirms the 7,000 job cuts announced last February, which represents 3.2% of the entertainment giant’s 220,000 employees.
For the time being, we do not yet know the details or the branches of the company that will be affected and in what proportion. But the objective is official: to reduce costs by 5.5 billion dollars to return to profitability.
Concretely, a first group of employees affected by these layoffs will be informed this week. A second round of job cuts will take place in April including “several thousand additional workforce reductions”. Finally, a final phase will take place during the summer.
Bob Iger clarifies on this subject: “In difficult times, we must always do what is necessary to ensure that Disney can continue to deliver exceptional entertainment to audiences and guests around the world, now and in the future”.
A new strategy for Disney
In the meantime, and as one can imagine, the climate is very heavy internally, and everyone is wondering if they will be affected by these staff reductions. In addition to these layoffs, Bob Iger recently unveiled a strategy aimed again at saving money.
The manager notably returned to the case of streaming and its Disney+ platform, which costs the company a lot of money. He did not directly confirm this information, but price increases cannot be ruled out. Similarly, Disney could now grant certain licenses to third parties, or even produce certain content for rivals in order to generate new revenue.
Another major challenge for the company: continue to capitalize on its flagship Marvel and Star Wars licenses. While a beginning of weariness begins to dawn on the part of the public, the studio has its work cut out to relaunch these mythical sagas.
In particular, he believes that making more than two films about a character is not necessarily wise. Especially since “Marvel has 7,000 characters. There are many more stories to tell. »
