ESPN to Whack Hundreds

While the country is focused on who will be the next President, Disney thought it would be a great time while everyone was distracted to announce that they will be bouncing hundreds of people at ESPN.

Back on October 8th, FTVLive told you that the sports network was looking to make some big cuts and now parent company Disney has confirmed it.

The LA Times writes that the cuts, which include 300 layoffs, were revealed Thursday in a memo from Jimmy Pitaro, president of the Walt Disney Co.-owned unit. In addition to the layoffs, another 200 open positions will be eliminated, the company said. ESPN has more than 5,000 employees worldwide.

“Prior to the pandemic, we had been deeply engaged in strategizing how best to position ESPN for future success amidst tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports,” Pitaro said in the memo viewed by the Times. “The pandemic’s significant impact on our business clearly accelerated those forward-looking discussions.”

The company, based in Bristol, Conn., did not specify which areas would be affected, but people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said the cuts would be across different departments.

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