Disney, one of the world’s largest entertainment and streaming companies, has announced that it is laying off 7,000 employees.
The job cuts amount to about 3% of the entertainment giant’s global workforce.
AFP
Reducing costs by cutting jobs
Disney CEO Bob Iger said the layoffs are part of Disney’s plans to reduce costs.
“I do not make this decision lightly,” Iger said on a call to analysts after Disney posted its latest quarterly earnings.
“We are going to take a really hard look at the costs for everything that we make, both across television and film,” Iger said.
AFP
“Because things in a very competitive world have just simply gotten more expensive.”
In a statement, Iger said Disney is embarking on a “significant transformation” management believes will lead to improved profitability in the company’s streaming business.
Disney+ subscriber numbers fall
The announcement comes against the backdrop of Disney+, the media giant’s streaming service, saw its first-ever fall in subscribers last quarter as consumers cut back on spending.
AFP
Subscribers to Disney+ fell one per cent to 161.8 million customers on December 31, compared to three months earlier.
The company founded by Walt Disney is the latest global giant to lay off its employees.
Zoom lays off 1,300 employees
Just a day earlier, Zoom Video Communications Inc said it would cut about 1,300 jobs as demand for the company’s video conferencing services slowed with the waning of the pandemic.
REUTERS
While announcing the layoffs, which will hit nearly 15% of its workforce, Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan said he would take a pay cut of 98% for the coming fiscal year and forego his bonus.
Over one lakh jobs cut in 2023
Earlier, some of the biggest names in the tech industry, including Facebook’s parent company Meta, Twitter, Amazon, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft and many more, had announced their plans to cut their workforce considerably.
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According to the data by layoffs.fiy, before the Disney job cuts were announced, a total of 321 tech companies around the world had announced layoffs in 2023, costing 97996 jobs.
With rumours of another round of layoffs in Facebook and the job cuts in the tech sector, the trend is likely to continue in the coming months.
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