Daily Mail; Disney layoffs: First wave of 4,000 employees set to be cut

Story from Daily Mail:

Executives at The Walt Disney are reportedly planning to cut 4,000 jobs in the next two weeks - much sooner than expected - as CEO Bob Iger works to save the company some $5.5 billion.

One report indicates managers are currently working to identify 4,000 employees who are 'redundant and disposable' and will be required to turn in their lists in the coming weeks with the first big hit to occur in April.

The employees who are on the lists will then be informed of their termination, the report states. It's unclear, however, if the layoffs will happen all at once.

Iger had previously announced 7,000 layoffs throughout the company after he took back over as CEO in November.

The cuts come after the company reported profits of $23.51 billion, which exceeded analysts' expectations of $23.44 billion.

According to Business Insider, the first wave of cuts are expected to be made in the coming weeks as managers are expected to turn in cut proposals.

A person familiar with the company told the news outlet they are confident the layoffs will come down in April.

The person also said managers have had several weeks to make their lists.

Additionally, the remaining 3,000 cuts are expected to come from open positions.

DailyMail.com reached out to Disney to confirm the report but did not hear back by the time of publication.

In the February earnings call where the job cuts were announced, Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said the company was looking to save nearly $6 billion.

According to McCarthy, a portion of the cuts will also come from lessening spending for TV and movies.

The rest of the money will come from marketing and other non-content areas.

Last month, Iger also announced that The Walt Disney Company would restructure into three divisions: Entertainment, ESPN, and Parks, Experiences and Products.

It has been reported that the majority of the cuts will come from the entertainment and ESPN divisions.

After the company aired an ad during last month's Super Bowl, executives faced heavy backlash for paying millions to show the commercial amid the news of their terminations.

Thirty-second commercials shown during the Super Bowl were reported to cost as much as $7 million a slot.

'Something about that Disney celebratory ad bugs me ... maybe it's the recent announcement they're laying off 7,000 employees and spending at least $7m on the ad,' said one person on Twitter.

Disney said the advert, which reviewed 100 years of film content and thanked fans for their support, was paid for with previous ad credits.

Drew Lewis, Head of Content at Redbear Films, tweeted in February: 'How many jobs could've been saved instead of spending $7m on that 100 year anniversary ad?'

Another user said in a tweet: 'The layoffs were pitched as cost cutting, spending on a [Super Bowl] ad is not essential.'

One commented under the post by the main Disney account: 'A company with quite a dark history. How 'bout we address the recent lay off of 7,000 employees?'

It's been a rough few months for executives at the company as they also have been criticized for recent business decisions.

At the end of February, DailyMail.com reported that more than 2,300 workers recently signed a petition asking Iger to reconsider a 'return to office' order which cuts back on their remote work days.

The mandate, the employees claim, will lead to 'forced resignations among some of our most hard-to-replace talent and vulnerable communities' while also 'dramatically reducing productivity, output, and efficiency.'

According to The Washington Post, the petition was submitted to upper management last month.

Disney currently employs more than 200,000 and signees of the petition span ABC, 20th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, Hulu, Pixar, and FX.

'This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss,' employees wrote in the petition obtained by the Washington Post.