Disney is Restructuring and Laying Off Staff

Recently Bob Iger, Chief Executive Officer of Disney announced plans for a dramatic restructuring of the world’s largest entertainment company, including slashing 7,000 jobs from its workforce and cutting  $5.5 billion in costs, as well as $3 billion in content savings.

The move marks the most significant action Bob Iger has taken since returning to the company as CEO in November. Disney announced the changes minutes after it posted its most recent quarterly earnings.

As part of the change, Disney’s CEO also announced that the company will be reorganized into three divisions: an entertainment unit that includes its main TV, film and streaming businesses; the ESPN sports networks; and the theme-park unit, which includes cruise ships and consumer products.

Media companies, such as Warner Bros. Discovery, have been pulling back on content spending and looking to make their streaming businesses profitable. Heightened competition has led to slowing subscriber growth, and companies have been looking to find new avenues of revenue growth. Some, like Disney+ and Netflix, have added cheaper, ad-supported options.

“We will take a very hard look at the cost of everything we make across television and film,” Iger said on a call with investors last Wednesday.