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Disney's Bob Iger is swinging the ax as he plans to lay off 7,000 workers worldwide

Disney plans to lay off 7,000 employees worldwide. The announcement is part of returning CEO Bob Iger's statement to his board about the company's finances moving forward.
Patrick T. Fallon
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AFP via Getty Images
Disney plans to lay off 7,000 employees worldwide. The announcement is part of returning CEO Bob Iger's statement to his board about the company's finances moving forward.

Updated February 8, 2023 at 8:10 PM ET

The Walt Disney Co. announced plans Wednesday to cut about 4% of its entire workforce. That means layoffs for 7,000 employees.

The company's stock increased immediately after the announcement, which was expected.

Returning CEO, Bob Iger, is making a statement to his board about the company's finances moving forward.

His goal is to cut more than $5 billion in costs in part by consolidating divisions that make and distribute movies and TV shows.

Disney has actually been doing relatively well of late, with profits and revenues up, strong figures from theme parks, and more subscribers on Disney-owned streaming services such as ESPN+ and Hulu — although not Disney+. That platform lost 2.4 million subscribers in the first quarter of the fiscal year, according to the company's latest earnings report.

But profits from traditional television have dropped, and none of the streaming services are making money.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR's Arts Desk.

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The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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