Disney to lay off 32,000 people as pandemic wreaks havoc on theme parks



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Disney plans to lay off about 32,000 employees, mostly in its theme park business, in the first half of next year, the company said in a 10K filing. The company says it is making these layoffs “due to of the current climate, including the impacts of COVID-19 ”. This is an increase of 4,000 from the 28,000 layoffs initially announced in September. The new figure includes previously announced layoffs, Variety reports.

Along with the layoffs, Disney said it was considering additional measures such as reducing its investments in film and television content, halting capital spending and laying off more employees. Already, 37,000 of its employees were on leave as of October 3 Variety Remarks.

The announcement comes after a difficult year for Disney’s business. Its theme parks in particular have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Although its Florida Disney World theme park was able to reopen earlier this year with restrictions such as wearing masks so as not to eat, Disneyland has been closed since March. the WSJ note that it is still not known when the California park will reopen.

Its theme park issues combined with forced delays or altered release plans for several of its flagship movie releases, lead Disney to post a rare pair of quarterly losses this year. In August, the company reported a loss of $ 4.72 billion for the quarter, which WSJ reporting was its first quarterly loss since 2001. It followed with an additional loss of $ 710 million the following quarter.

Despite the challenges facing its in-person business, the company’s profits were helped by the launch of its streaming service Disney Plus, which had 73.7 million subscribers in early October. The company plans to launch another streaming service outside of the United States next year under its Star brand, the WSJ Remarks.

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