Disney is preparing for a major round of layoffs, and some executives have been told to cut spending by 20% annually, Bloomberg News reported.
This will be the fourth round of layoffs in 2026 under Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and will affect the largest number of employees. The Bloomberg report, citing unnamed sources, said some Disney operations would be “disproportionately affected” but did not provide details on which areas would be hardest hit by the cuts. D’Amaro “aims to reinvest some of the savings into film and TV programming, technology, theme parks and cruise ship businesses,” according to the report.
Disney declined to comment.
Disney is planning a major restructuring of its TV operations that will cut hundreds of jobs and merge divisions, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
In late September, Disney laid off several hundred employees, primarily in corporate and other divisions, as well as in its human resources and IT departments. In July, Disney laid off hundreds of people in certain corporate functions, including Pixar, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television and Disney studios. And in April, the Mouse House eliminated nearly 1,000 roles, primarily as a result of D’Amaro creating a unified corporate marketing division led by Asad Ayaz, chief marketing and brand officer.
Dana Walden, Disney’s president and chief creative officer, addressed the latest layoffs at Disney at a Bloomberg Screentime event last month. “I believe, like all of our similarly situated competitors and certainly all of our competitors in the technology industry, you have to constantly evaluate how you are structured,” Walden said.
In August, Disney offered early retirement buyout packages to longtime executives as part of its ongoing cost-cutting efforts. This offer is available to U.S.-based director employees who are at least 50 years old and have at least 10 years of service through EVP levels within Disney Entertainment, ESPN and corporate divisions.
Of the voluntary buyout offers, Walden said at the Bloomberg conference that “the program was extremely generous and gave a portion of our long-serving executive agency and the opportunity to make their own decisions about whether the timing was right to leave or stay, that this evolution will never stop, that technology has its eye on our business, and we must survive, thrive and grow, and that’s what we will do.”
D’Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston had stated that additional layoffs would come when announcing results for the June 2026 quarter. “We are extremely focused on reducing costs across the organization to create increased capacity to invest in growth and are evaluating a variety of tools, including workforce and SG&A reductions. [selling, general and administrative expenses]Executives wrote in their Aug. 5 letter to Disney shareholders.
Disney is scheduled to report results for the September quarter, the company’s 4th quarter of fiscal 2026, on November 17, before the market opens.
Other media companies are also making layoffs. Netflix laid off nearly 1,000 workers last month, and Paramount and Warner Bros. Skydance, the company established by the merger of Discovery, is also expected to make significant layoffs by the end of the year.