Yahoo Sports Disney Has Laid Off 7,000 Employees in Planned Attempt to Reduce Costs by $5.5B
CEO Bob Iger reportedly set out to achieve the total number of cuts as part of a cost-saving strategy
AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Disney has reportedly laid off 7,000 employees — which CEO Bob Iger set out to do in February.
According to Variety, employees of the Walt Disney Company were given notice Friday in a third round of layoffs.
Most of the cuts came from within the media department, while the park resorts saw minimal layoffs.
A source familiar with the situation told Variety that Disney still plans to lay off more jobs overseas in the future.
But for now, this will reportedly be the last leg of cuts by Iger after he returned to his position as CEO following Bob Chapek’s departure in November.
Variety reported that employees were first laid off on Mar. 27 as part of Iger’s efforts to reduce costs by $5.5 billion upon his return as chief executive officer. He previously held that title from 2005 to 2020.
Disney saw another round of cuts the week of Apr. 24, bringing the total to 4,000.
The 7,000 people laid off constitute 3.2% of Disney’s global employee count of 220,000 as of Oct. 1, 2022, according to the outlet.
The total also represents $2.5 billion of “non-content costs” (including labor cuts) to save, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy told analysts in February, per Variety.
Related: Bob Iger Has 'No Interest in Running Another Company' After 15-Year Tenure as Disney CEO
Iger, 72, said of the projected layoffs at the time he announced the cuts: “I have enormous respect and appreciation for the dedication of our employees worldwide.”
For content costs, he said, “We are going to [take] a really hard look at everything we make [in general entertainment] because things in a more competitive world have simply gotten more expensive.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.
