Disney contemplates laying off 7,000 workers to lower costs by $5.5 billion

According to reports, Disney has fired 7,000 workers, as CEO Bob Iger had planned to do in February.

In a third wave of layoffs, the Walt Disney Company reportedly gave notice to its employees on Friday.

While the park resorts had just a small number of layoffs, the media department suffered the majority of them.

According to a source with knowledge of the matter, Disney still has future intentions to cut additional employees abroad.

But for the time being, this is said to be Iger's final round of layoffs since he took over as CEO in November after Bob Chapek left.

According to Variety, Iger's efforts to slash costs by $5.5 billion upon his return as CEO led to the first layoffs of workers on 27 Mar. He had the position before, from 2005 to 2020.

The week of April 24, Disney experienced yet another round of layoffs, increasing the total to 4,000.

According to the publication, the 7,000 layoffs represent 3.2% of Disney's 220,000 global employees as of October 1, 2022.

In addition, the sum represents $2.5 billion in "non-content costs" that can be avoided, according to Variety's report on Disney CFO Christine McCarthy's remarks to analysts in February.

Iger, 72, said of the projected layoffs at the time he affirmed 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.”