Disney Layoff Rounds Likely Starting Before Annual Meeting; Details On Cuts Emerge
22.03.2023 - 03:05
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: With Disney’s April 3 shareholder meeting — a virtual affair this year — less than two weeks away, some clarity is emerging about the company’s plans to reduce staff and cut costs.
Insiders tell Deadline that multiple rounds of cuts are being prepared. The first one is being targeted for next week, we hear. (March 30 or 31 have been floated as possible dates, but that has not been confirmed.) According to sources, there will be a big wave in late April, described as “the big one” or a “bloodbath,” when a large portion of the cuts are expected to come.
Information varies on a potential third round of layoffs. Some say it might come between the one in late March and the one in late April, while others note that it could follow the one in late April if it’s deemed necessary. Disney declined to comment.
Senior Disney executives have been hashing out specifics of the reductions in recent weeks. We hear that most managers already have submitted their layoff target reports, the step corporations take before a major workforce culling.
CEO Bob Iger revealed the scope of the cuts during the company’s February 8 quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts. Plans to let go of 7,000 staffers, roughly 3% of the company’s global workforce, are “not being taken lightly,” Iger said. The paring down of employee rolls is a cornerstone of the effort to reach $5.5 billion in overall cost savings.
RELATED: Disney Cuts Thousands Of Jobs Amidst Latest Restructuring & Costs Trimming; “I Do Not Make This Decision Lightly,” Bob Iger Says
Following his promise to investors, Iger is determined to make a “statement” in the coming weeks, one insider says.
The cuts are expected to be spread across the company’s three divisions,