DIMG Layoffs 2014

Jonah Warwrecker

Jonah Warwrecker

Honorable Pirate
Disney is to layoff a couple hundred people in the DIMG department.


Reuters) - Walt Disney Co is preparing to lay off several hundred people in its interactive unit, the division that includes gaming products and the Disney.com website, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The layoffs are expected to begin after Disney releases its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, the Journal said. Playdom, a social gaming business Disney acquired in 2010, is one division expected to see cutbacks, the newspaper said.
Disney is trying to turn around the interactive unit, which has about 3,000 employees. Its new Infinity video game enjoyed strong initial sales after its release last August, helping the division report a $16 million profit for the quarter that ended in September, an improvement from the $76 million loss a year earlier.
A Disney spokeswoman had no comment.

http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140203&id=17317068&ocid=ansmony11
 
I do "wish" that someone more intelligent than myself could explain Disney's actual position for continually implementing these cutbacks and employee layoffs.

I have noticed that Disney is implementing the majority of these layoffs at a time which is rather profitable internally within the company. Big corporations usually rely upon job cuts during times which are not profitable for the company. (The strategy is to reduce expenses by laying employees off from their jobs for the sole purpose of permitting the company enough time to rebound from current downtrends which had adversely affected the company's profitability).

This is a guess but, I have a theory that Disney implements these layoffs in order to continually boost up their stock price to please Disney shareholders with better than expected results for the current business quarter.

*Does anyone else have a theory out there as to why Disney keeps cutting employee jobs (especially directed at 'Disney Interactive') during such profitable times experienced within the company? :confused:This article below explains (a little) of Disney CEO - Robert Iger - intentions on assuring that Disney Interactive experiences "growth" despite the most recent layoffs/employee cutbacks implemented for this week:
 
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Zachary said:
I think Disney hires while making a game and as soon as it's released they layoff people. It's sad that a big company like Disney would do this for extra cash.
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It is not necessarily for extra cash. It requires more developers to make a game than to maintain and update it, so they fire them or migrate them to different projects afterwards. Companies such as BioWare, Blizzard, and ArenaNet for example always do this, it is typical. Hire a large team people, layoff/move all except about 20-30 or so.
Why pay someone if all they do is sit around, because you have too many team members?
 
Constance O'hara said:
It is not necessarily for extra cash. It requires more developers to make a game than to maintain and update it, so they fire them or migrate them to different projects afterwards. Companies such as BioWare, Blizzard, and ArenaNet for example always do this, it is typical. Hire a large team people, layoff/move all except about 20-30 or so.
Why pay someone if all they do is sit around, because you have too many team members?
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Oh yes, most game studios do put developers on hold when they aren't developing a game, I know Code Masters does this quit a bit, but in this case I believe Disney is doing it to save money because they are unneeded, which is understandable, but it's still sad.
 
Most of the layoffs are from Playdom. A company DIMG acquired for about 500 million. They are responsible for the Disney Facebook games like Pirates of the Caribbean: Isles of War. The "sub-company" if you will, has been a bleeding wound and hasn't made as much money as DIMG had hoped. Also they are probably laying off a large portion of the Disney Infinity team. It will take much less people to develop the new characters than it did to develop the whole game. :/
 
Surprise surprise, Disney is laying off people. As Constance and Jz summarized, it is a common practice to lay off after large projects and when Disney feels they wont get much if they only because x amount did not work. Thats what happened to POTCO, because x amount didnt work as well as it did and they said "hey lets do DI this should kick booty" Bam. Down she goes. No surprise, just Disney's same old same old.
 
Either they're planning themselves for something big, or something small that they think is big. They've already set themselves up to fail by being as greedy and cheap as they are, but now they're becoming total corporate shills. They won't lose because of their huge ranking in the world. Hopefull this isn't as bad as I think it will be.
 
And they keep at it, this time "laying" off 700 Disney Interactive employees (or 26% of their global staff)! :(
- From this news, it is clear to see that Disney will not be bringing POTCO back (ever). *Who would be around to maintain it (other than the 'mice' inhabiting all of the empty office space and buildings)?

*I cannot help but wonder why do they even bother to remain within the business to offer games? :mad:
 
I have no proof but my thought is that they are laying off the wrong people. When a corporation becomes as big as Disney, those top executives all get a cut from profits. In other words, too many chiefs and not enough Indians. The customer base is not supplying enough cash to pay for both, so their solution was to cut more low level workers.

Disclaimer:
( no offense intended for our Native American friends - it's just an expression)
 
Tabby Cat said:
Disney is really going down hill and losing many fan's. I wouldn't be surprised to see them shut down in 5 year's or so.
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If what you mean is DIMG, then perhaps. But Disney themselves, no matter how greedy or how many fans they're losing, is still going to be one of the most money-making companies in the world. Take, for example, Frozen. That movie did very well for Disney and made quite a bit of money.

Again, if you meant DIMG, then I suppose that could be realistic. But, Disney itself? Oh, no. That's not happening anytime soon.

(I don't say this because I like Disney, which I don't. I say this because of things that are likely or unlikely to happen.)
 
Gastro said:
...Disney themselves, no matter how greedy or how many fans they're losing, is still going to be one of the most money-making companies in the world.
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Perhaps I am missing something here but why can't Disney just allocate some of the extra profit they have gained from other divisions within the company whom are performing extremely well (i.e, the ESPN network or Disney Theme Parks) and invest some of those dollars back into Disney Interactive to the point to where the elimination of DIMG jobs would not be put at risk?

*I mean, this is what any normal person must to do when, by circumstance, their own CAR needs (mechanical) attention and while although the money could be spent on something else other than such "repairs," to assure financial success and/or security within the long-run, what is required within the short-run is to keep focus on such priority which permits things running smoothly and up to par.
Such focus is well worth the dollars spent...I would think.:duh:
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