Disney lays off nearly 60 employees in media distribution following Fox purchase

Another round of layoffs has hit Walt Disney Co. after the Burbank entertainment company’s purchase of 21st Century Fox.

Nearly 60 people were let go in the company’s media distribution units, including home entertainment and TV distribution, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. Disney also this week shed about 60 jobs at its newly acquired National Geographic unit.

Among those affected are Greg Drebin, executive vice president of worldwide marketing for 20th Century Fox Television Distribution, and Jennifer Chai, senior vice president of worldwide marketing and strategy for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Disney has gone through several rounds of layoffs since it completed its $71.3-billion purchase of Fox in March. The deal was projected to produce about $2 billion in cost synergies by 2021, and sources have estimated that the merger will eventually result in as many as 4,000 job cuts.

The newest layoffs come after Disney reported disappointing earnings earlier this month, attributing much of the struggles to newly acquired Fox units that performed worse than expected.

Layoffs at the Disney divisions were earlier reported by Variety and Deadline.