Disney-Fox: Troops Facing Uncertainty

Illustration by: Guy Shield

On Dec. 14, the day The Walt Disney Co. unveiled its industry-altering $52.4 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets, Peter Rice, president of Fox and CEO of Fox Networks Group, shared a stage with Fox TV Group co-chiefs Gary Newman and Dana Walden and FX Networks CEO John Landgraf. According to staff present, the leaders did their best to rally the troops. What they couldn’t do is proclaim their own job security.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, that uncertainty is being felt in commissaries and executive suites throughout the Murdoch empire, most of which over the next 12 to 18 months will be integrated into a Disney content powerhouse under CEO Bob Iger.

Analysts predict about $2 billion in “cost savings” from the merger, and “we believe Disney will need to cut well over 5,000 jobs, and the number could easily swell toward 10,000 given the high degree of overlap between the two companies around the world,” wrote analyst and Disney critic Rich Greenfield.