The Disney film unit will lay off about 150 people, with notifications expected as early as Wednesday, per talk around town
The layoffs will come from home entertainment, marketing, animation and music, all from Disney’s “studio entertainment” segment.
Other layoffs — though it’s not clear how many — will hit the conglomerate’s “consumer products” segment such as Home entertainment, marketing, animation and music departments
All of this despite strong financials for Disney, which recorded $5.7 billion in profit in fiscal 2012, up 18 percent year-over-year. And on Monday, Disney’s stock closed at an all-time high, up 2 percent to $58.82, giving the company a market capitalization of $106.2 billion.
The rumor mill says the reasoning for this action by CEO Robert Iger is to counter the effects result of rapidly changing technologies. In particular, digital streaming has cut into sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs and has required a shift in strategy.
