Bad newsDisney Prepares Thousands of Job Cuts as Some Managers Face 20% Savings Targets
Disney is preparing to cut several thousand jobs, Bloomberg reported on 3 November, with some managers told to find up to 20% in annual savings. It would be the fourth round this year. Disney declined to comment.
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The Walt Disney Company is preparing its largest round of job cuts this year. Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter, that several thousand jobs are at risk. The report did not say how many. CNBC says some managers have been asked to find as much as 20% in annual cost savings.
Disney declined to comment on the cuts, Deadline reports, and the timing is not clear. None of the figures below come from the company. They come from anonymous sources quoted by outlets that all trace to the Bloomberg report, so they are best read as reported plans rather than confirmed decisions.
Fourth round this year
Variety counts this as the fourth round of cuts under chief executive Josh D’Amaro, who took over from Bob Iger on 18 March, and the one that would affect the most people. In April Disney cut about 1,000 roles, mostly in marketing, after D’Amaro merged that work into one division. In July it cut several hundred more in corporate functions, including at Pixar, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television and the studios. In late September a few hundred went, mainly in human resources and technology.
Deadline adds that 100 to 200 people in the Experiences division, most of them at the Imagineering campus in Glendale, lost their jobs last week. CNBC lists the April and September rounds only, so the tally depends on the outlet. Disney employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025, according to its annual report as cited by CNBC.
Bloomberg’s sources said some Disney operations will be affected disproportionately, as Variety relays it, without naming which. Deadline’s sources say the cuts span several divisions, including the TV networks and the film studio, at varying amounts. Managers of affected teams have been given targets, as is usual before staff reductions.
The money is not all going to savings. D’Amaro intends to reinvest part of it in film and television programming, technology, theme parks and cruise ships, according to the Bloomberg report as relayed by Variety and CNBC.
The cuts were signalled. In a 5 August letter to shareholders, D’Amaro and finance chief Hugh Johnston wrote that the company was evaluating a variety of levers to reduce costs, including reductions in labour and overhead. In August Disney also offered early retirement packages to some long-serving executives. Deadline says more managers took that offer than expected, and that it was always seen as a precursor to layoffs.
Chief people officer Sonia Coleman told staff in an August memo that involuntary reductions had begun in some areas and would continue into next year. Disney’s president and chief creative officer Dana Walden said last month that companies like Disney need to keep evaluating how they are structured.
Disney reports fiscal fourth-quarter results on 17 November, and executives have said they will update investors on cost-cutting progress. Until then, the number of affected staff, the divisions hit hardest and the dates are all unconfirmed. The sources do not say how many of the cuts would fall in the United States.
