Disney is eliminating around 300 jobs, mostly in human resources and technology, as CEO Josh D'Amaro drives another cost-cutting wave meant to free cash for growth.
The entertainment giant is moving ahead with the latest round of workforce reductions since D'Amaro took charge earlier this year, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The bulk of the cuts hit human resources and technology roles.
Deadline first reported the moves. The company has now stacked multiple rounds of job cuts in a single year while telling investors it needs leaner operations to fund its next phase of growth.
D'Amaro stepped in as CEO in March, replacing longtime chief executive Bob Iger. He has pushed a "One Disney" strategy meant to pull divisions into tighter alignment as streaming and digital products overtake traditional media.
That shift has come with repeated payroll reductions. Families watching the company have also faced higher costs at the parks and on streaming apps even as headquarters trims staff.
In April, Disney planned to eliminate as many as 1,000 roles while D'Amaro consolidated the enterprise marketing division. CNBC reported that plan at the time.
In July the company reduced its workforce by several hundred people across corporate functions. Those cuts touched Pixar, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television, and Disney's studios. Most of the July layoffs landed inside Pixar and National Geographic.
The newest round of roughly 300 jobs continues that pattern. Exact locations for the latest cuts were not detailed, though Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, remains the company's longtime hub.
Disney has also kept raising prices on consumers. Recent coverage has tracked another Disney ticket price hike that fan sites warned could arrive within days, adding pressure on park visitors even as the company shrinks back-office payroll.
Disney warned investors about further cuts in its August earnings report. The company said it was still evaluating ways to lower costs company-wide.
In that report Disney stated:
"We remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A,"
It added:
"We are mid-stream in this work and will provide future updates on progress."
Around the same period the company began offering early-retirement buyout packages to longtime executives. How many packages were accepted was not disclosed.
The stated goal is straightforward: cut overhead so Disney can put more money into growth bets. Labor and selling, general, and administrative expenses sit high on the list of targets.
Streaming remains central to that bet. The company has already raised Disney+ and Hulu prices again, pushing ad-free plans past $21 a month for many households.
D'Amaro has made consolidation a priority since March. Aligning divisions under one banner is meant to end duplicated work and slow the bleed from older media models.
Technology and human resources roles often absorb those efficiency drives first. When companies merge systems and centralize hiring, those back-office teams shrink.
Disney has not issued a full public breakdown of which teams inside HR and tech are affected in the newest round. The figure of around 300 employees comes from the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
That limited transparency leaves workers and investors piecing together the scale from successive waves rather than one clean announcement.
At the same time, Disney has spent years lifting subscription fees. Coverage has documented how the company hiked Disney+ and Hulu prices for the fourth year running, locking in higher monthly bills even while internal headcount falls.
Cost cuts are only half the story D'Amaro is selling. The other half is direct-to-consumer growth and new streaming experiments.
Disney has explored free streaming channels as part of a broader shift toward owning the customer relationship outright. Leadership changes have reinforced a tech-first approach to that push.
The company recently moved to strengthen that lane, including steps that eye free streaming channels under the new CEO as a way to widen reach without relying solely on traditional pay packages.
Those growth bets require cash. Disney's answer so far has been to trim labor, consolidate marketing, offer buyouts, and keep raising prices on the products families already buy.
Whether the savings flow into better content and stronger platforms, or simply protect margins after years of expansion, will show up in future earnings updates the company has promised.
For now the pattern is clear. Since D'Amaro replaced Iger, Disney has planned cuts of up to 1,000 roles, executed several hundred more in July, and is now removing around 300 additional positions concentrated in HR and technology.
Corporate America often talks about "investing for growth" while workers absorb the first losses. Disney's own filings put that trade-off in plain language: reduce labor and overhead, then redeploy the savings.
Shareholders may cheer the discipline. The employees leaving HR and tech desks, and the customers paying more at the gate and on the app, live with the other side of the ledger.
When a media giant trims hundreds of jobs while lifting prices on parks and streaming, ordinary families should demand the growth story actually deliver, not just another round of leaner payrolls and fatter bills.