Disney to lay off a thousand employees

Disney plans to lay off up to 1,000 employees in the coming months. These are the first cuts made by the entertainment giant since the appointment of new CEO Josh D'Amaro. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

At the end of the last fiscal year, the company's global workforce numbered just over 230,000 employees, most of them employed part-time in theme parks. In January, the company promoted long-time executive Asad Ayaz to Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, after announcing a plan to consolidate the marketing of the film, television and streaming divisions and eliminate duplication. Many of the cuts announced as part of this new wave of redundancies are linked to this decision.

Although the layoffs are significant, they represent only a fraction of the cuts planned by former CEO Bob Iger upon his return to the company. From 2023 to 2025, several waves of layoffs eliminated some 8,000 employees, generating $7.5 billion in savings. The figure was far higher than originally forecast.

At Disney, the most recent layoffs - part of a wave of cost-cutting and rationalisation in the media industry - occurred last June, when several hundred employees worldwide were laid off in various divisions of Disney Entertainment, including film and television marketing, as well as public relations, casting, and television development. Disney's corporate financial operations were also affected. The June cuts were the fourth - and largest - wave of layoffs in 10 months affecting several of Disney's television divisions.

D'Amaro was officially appointed CEO on 3 February and took office on 18 March at Disney's annual shareholders' meeting, ending Iger's tenure after 52 years and two stints as CEO.