ESPN to Layoff 350 People
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The worldwide leader in sports is about to get a lot more lean.
ESPN is expected to tell employees at the network today, that they are laying off hundreds of people.
The cuts, around 350 jobs, will shrink the ESPN workforce by about 4.3 percent.
The action follows Disney’s announcement in August that earnings at its cable networks won’t meet company forecasts as a result of subscriber losses and currency translation. That triggered a selloff in the shares of many media companies. Disney had the second-largest long-term commitment to sports programming at $44.2 billion behind only 21st Century Fox Inc., according to Bloomberg Intelligence. That was before signing a long-term agreement with the NBA.
An ESPN spokesman declined to comment. The sports broadcaster, based in Bristol, Connecticut, employs 8,000 people worldwide, according to a company fact sheet.
“ESPN has historically embraced evolving technology to smartly navigate our business,” the company said in a statement last month when plans for job cuts were reported by thebiglead.com. “Any organizational changes will be announced directly to our employees if and when appropriate.”
H/T Bloomberg
