Disney/Fox Merger Will Result In At Least 4,000 Lost Jobs

Ever since the Disney/Fox merger was announced, we've known that hard-working employees of the studios were going to end up as collateral damage when the dust settled. While the deal hasn't officially gone through yet, a new report says that after it does, at least 4,000 people are going to lose their jobs.

The Hollywood Reporter has an in-depth piece about Disney's impending acquisition of most of Fox's assets and how it will affect Fox employees. The short answer? One analyst says "there will be bloodshed" in the process, referring to the thousands of employees who will be laid off in the aftermath of the merger. This excerpt paints an especially grim picture:

Disney has promised $2 billion in cost savings, so more than 4,000 layoffs are expected (though Disney-skeptic analyst Rich Greenfield puts the number at 5,000 to 10,000 over time). It's harder to predict potential layoffs within the Fox film studio itself, which has about 3,200 employees, but cuts are expected to be especially deep, particularly in overlapping divisions such as marketing, distribution and home entertainment.

We knew something like this was going to happen, but seeing those numbers puts everything in stark perspective. It's almost impossible to get excited about the X-Men and the Fantastic Four coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe when you consider the human cost of what their arrival means.

Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, has left his mark on the company by acquiring major industry players like Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm and strengthening the Disney brand in the face of rising competition from rivals like Netflix, but none of his previous acquisitions resulted in significant layoffs like this. The history books will concentrate on how Disney consumed a major competitor and brought about the end of a studio that's been operating for nearly one hundred years and has hundreds of classics to its name, but they may forget the human ramifications of this decision. You can bet the people who worked on that historic studio lot every day will never forget. We wish them the best of luck.

The Disney/Fox merger was rumored to possibly go through on the first day of 2019, but it still hasn't been finalized yet. THR says the deal, which is still awaiting regulatory approval, may be officially done by the end of this month, but it could take years to assimilate the Fox properties and employees under the Disney umbrella.