“I wish I could tell you that the hardest part is behind us; that closing the deal was the finish line, rather than just the next milestone,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said in an email welcoming Fox employees into Disney. “What lies ahead is the challenging work of uniting our businesses to create a dynamic, global entertainment company with the content, the platforms, and the reach to deliver industry-defining experiences … for generations to come.”
Disney’s purchase of the Fox assets — a deal that had been in the works for a year and a half — took effect 9 p.m. Tuesday. On Wednesday, a handful of senior Fox executives trekked “over the hill” to Disney’s Burbank headquarters to report for their first day of duty. However, hundreds of others remained on Fox’s Century City lot. For many, the anticipation of the ownership change quickly melted into dread for their own futures.
More than 3,000 people, mostly at Fox, are expected to be squeezed out as Disney figures out which Fox employees it will bring aboard, according to people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to comment. Many of those jobs are in Los Angeles.
Disney has not disclosed a target for job cuts. However, the company has said that it expects “at least $2 billion in cost synergies by 2021 from operating efficiencies realized through the combination of businesses.” The bulk of those efficiencies will come through workforce reductions.
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