According to Variety, Disney is prepping a fourth round of 2026 layoffs, with Bloomberg reporting that some managers have been told to cut 20% of their expenses on an annualized basis. It is expected to be the biggest round of the year by headcount.
Round four. April: about 1,000, mostly in marketing. July: several hundred. September: several hundred more in HR and IT. And in August, the buyout package for executives 50 and older with 10 years of service, which the company described as "extremely generous." Every round gets a new verb, and the machine underneath is the same one.
The savings, says CEO Josh D'Amaro, will be reinvested in "film and TV programming, technology and the theme parks and cruise ship businesses." That is corporate for the money coming back to the shareholders. Dana Walden, at an industry event, called the process what it is: "this evolution will never stop." Evolution is the word for layoffs now.
The line that does the real work is "technology set their sights on our business." The company that spent the last decade buying every logo it could find is telling its employees that the algorithm came for them, then mailing out the severance. The earnings call is November 17. The cuts are the Q4 preview.
YOUR TURN: How many rounds of "evolution" does it take before a company becomes the thing that's being evolved?
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