ESPN, the leading sports network in America laid off about 400 employees last week. It is understood that more layoffs are planned in coming weeks. In their statement released to media, the company has said that the layoffs are a part of company wide changes to ensure their growth and profitability. From available reports – it is learnt that most of the layoffs will be in sales and technology departments.
ESPN is a subsidiary of media giant Disney. Earlier last month, Disney had also announced the layoff of most of the team at the video game studio – LucasArts, owned by Lucasfilm, which Disney had acquired last year for $4 billion.
This is ESPN’s first major staff reduction since 2009, according to Deadspin, sports website owned by Gawker Media.