“I don’t take this decision lightly,” Disney’s CEO said on Wednesday during a conference call with analysts on the company’s quarterly results.
Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, announced on Wednesday that his group would “reduce” its staff to around 7,000 positions, in order to save money and improve the profitability of the American entertainment giant’s streaming platforms.
“Although it is necessary to face the current difficulties, I do not take this decision lightly,” said the leader during a conference call with analysts on the quarterly results of the company.
The Walt Disney group will reorganize into three new divisions, one grouping entertainment, another for the ESPN channel and finally one in charge of amusement parks, also declared general manager Bob Iger.
Loss of subscribers
Disney+ lost 2.4 million subscribers in the last three months of 2022. This is the first time since the streaming service launched in late 2019 that Disney+ fails to gain millions of new viewers in the past quarter.
The platform now has 161.8 million subscribers worldwide. In all, according to its quarterly results release published on Wednesday, the Disney group achieved a turnover of 23.5 billion dollars from October to December, better than expected by analysts.
But the losses justify, according to the Disney boss, the dismissal of thousands of employees. According to its 2021 annual report, the group employed 190,000 people worldwide as of October 2 of that year, 80% of them full-time.