Disney layoffs: Metaverse division gets the axe
Disney will begin the first round of layoffs of 7,000 employees within the company, and according to a report, the metaverse division is the first to bid farewell.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Disney has laid off its metaverse division in the first round of layoffs. The metaverse division was announced last year by the former CEO Bob Chapek, and now the division is being laid off under the new management of Robert Iger.
Chapek believed in the metaverse and wanted to implement Disney services to the upcoming technology. After seeing Facebook's investments in the area, Chapek got more excited, but his excitement lasted until being replaced by Iger. Robert Iger wants to guarantee a stable future for the company, so he recently announced the layoffs of 7,000 employees from every branch of the company.
The metaverse division consists of roughly 50 members
Disney had a relatively small division dedicated to the metaverse, roughly 50 members. Employees were developing metaverse strategies and planning the company's upcoming moves in the field. The division's head, Mike White, a former Disney consumer products executive, will remain at the company, but his new role remains unclear.
Mike White was involved in several internal efforts, including a program similar to Amazon Prime. It would connect customer data across numerous Disney channels, including streaming service Disney+, online retail operations, and smartphone apps that visitors to Disney's theme parks use to purchase food, goods, and other products. The Wall Street Journal mentioned that it was also abandoned.
Disney is trying to reduce corporate spending and boost some cash. With 7,000 layoffs, the company plans to cut $5.5 billion in costs, including $3 billion in content spend. The metaverse division is only the beginning, and almost 6,950 more people will be left in limbo. Moreover, almost none of the employees are safe, as it concerns every department, from parks and resorts to ESPN, other media outlets, and more.
This means that Disney has suspended its research into the metaverse's future. Instead, the company might focus on what it owns right now and try to stay idle for at least a while until it boosts the free cash flow and reduces enough expenses.
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Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.