The Walt Disney Company, in a cost-cutting move, is planning on beginning layoffs, implementing a targeted hiring freeze, and limiting company travel.
As reported by Variety, Disney CEO Bob Chapek sent out an internal memo to top executives at the company on Friday, November 11, saying these coming weeks are going to be difficult ones.
The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek. (Image Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I am fully aware this will be a difficult process for many of you and your teams,” Chapek said. “We are going to have to make tough and uncomfortable decisions. But that is just what leadership requires, and I thank you in advance for stepping up during this important time. Our company has weathered many challenges during our 100-year history, and I have no doubt we will achieve our goals and create a more nimble company better suited to the environment of tomorrow.”
During this process, Disney will also be performing a “rigorous review of the company’s content and marketing spending.” This review will be led by the newly formed “cost structure taskforce,” a group that includes Chapek, CFO Christina McCarthy, and general counsel Horacio Gutierrez.
These moves follow Disney’s quarterly earnings results that saw an operating loss for its streaming division of $1.47 billion. While revenue increased by 8% to $4.9 billion, it also saw a drop of 5% for Disney’s linear television networks in the quarter. Disney also recent saw shares of the company fall to 13.16%, marking the lowest drop in two years.
On the bright side, Disney+ outperformed Wall Street’s projections and reached 164.2 million subscribers and it expects the streaming service to “achieve profitability in fiscal 2024.”
It feels as though many major companies are going through different cost-cutting measures, as this news follows similar layoffs at Twitter, Meta, and Microsoft.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.