DreamWorks Animation is supposedly planning on even more layoffs. According to a labor union, this round of layoffs began on Monday, and it has been indicated that between 150 and 400 employees may be laid off.
This is the third round of job cuts that this writer has reported in two years. In early 2013, the company laid off between 20% and 25% of all employees, with another 40 to 50 employees cut in 2014.
Recently, the animation studio was in talks to be purchased by SoftBank, and when that fell through, Hasbro became interested. Now, both buyers are out, and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg intends to “significantly reduce” the workforce size.
Not much news is known as the layoffs continue, but it appears as though story-board artists, animators, and other various production personal will be let go.
This latest round comes two weeks after it was reported that Bonnie Arnold and Mireille Soria would replace Bill Damaschke as the new co-presidents of feature animation.
DreamWorks has struggled in recent years with films such as Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Rise of the Guardians, and Turbo, which have all contributed to the various pieces of bad news that have recently been reported by the company. Recently, How to Train Your Dragon 2 received a Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe, giving the company a piece of good news that is sorely needed.
What do you think will happen to DreamWorks Animation as these layoffs continue? Do you think that the studio is in trouble?
Edited by: Kelly Conley
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