Disney Gives Up on a Major Investment

While Disney may be the happiest place on earth in the hearts and minds of many people, the business itself is not having such a happy week.

As reported on THE STREET, CEO Bob Iger sent an email to employees on March 27 to let them know that the planned layoffs (previously announced in February) would start this week, and despite him sharing his regrets, it still came off as harsh to those who dedicated years of their lives to the company.

Those layoffs, when complete, will affect 7,000 employees. But one of the details of the layoff points to something interesting: Disney completely sacked its metaverse division (known as the Journal Next Generation Storytelling & Consumer Experiences group), affecting roughly 50 employees, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Disney’s metaverse division was previously headed up by Mike White, previously SVP of consumer experiences. White, however, will still work at Disney in some capacity, although his new role has not yet been announced.

While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has done his best over the last few years to convince everyone that the metaverse is the future, even he seems to have given up on his own vision — especially now that it’s become clear that OpenAI is the next big tech innovation.

While the elimination of the metaverse team is only one of many cuts Disney making in a billion-dollar restructuring plan, this move indicates that the House of Mouse is ready to leave the web3 world behind. And it’s going to save a lot by doing so — $5.5 billion, according to Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy.