Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is eliminating about 200 jobs at DreamWorks Animation unit Glendale. Following Comcast and NBCUniversal’s $3.8 billion acquisition of the company recently this year, such a move was expected.
The reductions are focused on corporate overhead groups along with distribution and consumer product. Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, chairman, Jeff Shell wrote: “We have begun sharing organisational decisions that will result in the elimination of approximately 200 positions at our Glendale campus. These changes are focused in the corporate overhead groups as well as distribution and consumer products, areas where we can fully integrate operations with NBCUniversal.”
Comcast closed its deal to acquire DWA in August thus the layoffs are not a surprise and routinely happen after mergers and acquisitions of this size as evaluations are made to eliminate overlaps.
Employees in marketing, distribution, consumer products and financial areas in Glendale will start receiving termination notices as early as this week. Here’s the memo that was sent out by Shell.
To: DWA
Subject: A Message From Jeff Shell
Dear Colleagues:
As we move along in the process of integrating our companies, the leadership team will continually evaluate the needs of our business to ensure we are best positioned to meet our goal of being a leader in premium animation content across all platforms. As indicated on Day One, we remain committed to transparency and, over the next few months, will communicate about any changes expected as a part of the integration with NBCUniversal.
To that end, today we have begun sharing organizational decisions that will result in the elimination of approximately 200 positions at our Glendale campus. These changes are focused in the corporate overhead groups as well as distribution and consumer products, areas where we can fully integrate operations with NBCUniversal.
Those who will be impacted by these decisions will be notified this week and many will be working with us over the next several months as a part of the transition. These are difficult but necessary moves as we work to integrate our organizations and we will be as generous as possible to those who will be leaving the company.
We know you will join us in supporting your colleagues during this time of transition and we too will be exploring other opportunities for them and providing career placement counseling to help minimize the impact.
Looking forward, we are excited about the incredible opportunities ahead for our combined organization and we will work together to make them a reality.
Thanks for your continued hard work,
Jeff Shell