Disney eyes thousands of layoffs, asks managers to target 20% savings, Bloomberg News reports
- Disney employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025
Walt Disney is reportedly planning thousands of job cuts and significant cost savings, driven by challenges like AI, streaming competition, and declining theme park attendance, with savings to be reinvested.
- Reasons for Disney's potential thousands of job cuts and cost savings.
- CEO D'Amaro's strategy for reinvesting savings into core businesses.
- Disney's history of job reductions and industry-wide layoff trends.
Walt Disney is considering cutting thousands of jobs and has asked some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The reported restructuring effort comes as CEO Josh D’Amaro navigates challenges including the growing use of AI, weaker box office revenue, intensifying competition from streaming rivals and a slowdown in international attendance at the entertainment company’s theme parks.
Some Disney operations are expected to bear a larger share of the cuts than others and D’Amaro aims to reinvest part of the savings into film and TV programming, technology, theme parks and cruise ship businesses, the report said.
Disney did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
The report did not specify how many jobs could be affected.
Disney employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025.
Disney president says layoffs ‘extremely painful’ but necessary
The entertainment giant has been cutting jobs in recent years as part of broader efforts to improve profitability.
Reuters reported in September that Disney was laying off a few hundred employees across its human resources and technology divisions.
The company had previously cut about 1,000 positions in April, several hundred jobs in 2025, and 7,000 roles in 2023 as part of its efforts to save $5.5 billion in costs under former CEO Bob Iger.
Media and entertainment companies including Netflix and Skydance, which acquired bigger rival Warner Bros Discovery earlier this year, have also cut jobs to reduce costs.