Layoffs season continues as the bandwagon has a new entrant- entertainment company- Disney Hotstar. The entertainment giant by Walt Disney has announced to cut around 7000 jobs which accounts for 3 per cents of the workforce as a part of an ambitious company-wide cost savings plan and strategic reorganization.
The big decision came right after the company’s announcement of recent quarterly earnings. In a statement, Iger said Disney is embarking on a “significant transformation” that management believes will lead to improved profitability at the company’s streaming business. Iger said in the call that the company was “targeting $5.5 billion of cost savings” and that the layoffs will “help achieve this.” However, he didn’t reveal which departments the layoffs will affect.
Reports suggest that Disney started the plan for cost-cutting and layoffs as soon as the company’s CEO Robert Iger took over from former CEO Bob Chapek last November. Notably, Iger served as the company’s CEO for 15 years before he stepped down from his position in 2020. However, with his return, the company has already started going through some significant organizational changes, including the decision to cut down on employee counts.
According to an official release by the entertainment giant, the quarterly earnings of the company have reportedly declined due to a plunge in the subscriber growth rate due to tough competition from rival Netflix. On the international front, excluding Hotstar, the streaming service saw an increase of 1.2 million members. Meanwhile, its other platforms, Hulu and ESPN Plus witnessed modest growth in subscriber rate, with 800,000 and 600,000 new subscribers added respectively.
The layoffs come amidst a barrage of job cuts in the technology and media sector. So far, as per data by Layoffs.fyi globally, 321 tech companies have laid off over 90,000 employees.