Disney is preparing for a major round of layoffs, with some executives asked to cut spending by 20% on an annualized basis, Bloomberg News reported.
This would be the fourth round of job cuts in 2026 under Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, and would affect the largest number of employees. The Bloomberg report, which cites unnamed sources, says some Disney businesses “will be disproportionately affected,” but it does not provide details on which areas would suffer most from the cuts. D’Amaro “aims to reinvest a portion of the savings in film and television programming, technology, theme parks and cruise operations,” according to the report.
Disney declined to comment.
Disney is planning a major restructuring of its television operations that would result in the elimination of hundreds of jobs and the consolidation of divisions, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.
In late September, Disney laid off a few hundred employees, primarily in its human resources and IT departments across the company and across various divisions. In July, Disney made job cuts, eliminating several hundred jobs across some functions across the company, including at Pixar, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television and Disney Studios. And in April, Mouse House cut about 1,000 positions, primarily due to D’Amaro’s creation of a consolidated corporate marketing division under Asad Ayaz, chief marketing and branding officer.
Dana Walden, Disney’s president and chief creative officer, addressed the recent layoffs at Disney at the Bloomberg Screentime event last month. “I think like all of our competitors in the same situation, and certainly all of our competitors in the technology sector, there’s a need to constantly evaluate how you’re structured,” Walden said.
In August, Disney offered early retirement buyouts to longtime executives as part of its ongoing cost-cutting efforts. This offer was available to U.S.-based employees at the director through EVP levels within the Disney Entertainment, ESPN and corporate divisions, with a minimum age of 50 and at least 10 years of service.
Regarding the voluntary buyout offers, Walden said at the Bloomberg conference that the program “was extremely generous and gave a number of our long-time leaders the opportunity to make their own decisions about when to leave or stay, knowing that this evolution will never stop, that technology has set its sights on our business, and that we must survive, thrive and grow, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Announcing results for the June 2026 quarter, D’Amaro and chief financial officer Hugh Johnston had indicated that further job cuts were coming. “We remain strongly focused on reducing costs across the company to create additional investment capacity for growth and are evaluating various levers, including reductions in labor and general and administrative expenses (selling, general and administrative expenses),” executives wrote in the Aug. 5 letter to Disney shareholders.
Disney is scheduled to report its September quarter results, the fourth quarter of the company’s fiscal 2026, on Nov. 17 before the market opens.
Other media companies are also making job cuts. Netflix laid off about 1,000 employees last month and Skydance – the company formed from the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery – expected to make significant layoffs by the end of the year.
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