Corporate mergers and acquisitions almost inevitably result in layoffs as the two companies discover dreaded “redundancies.” That is what is happening Tuesday with ESPN and NFL Network.
Nearly six months after Disney finalized its acquisition of NFLN and NFL RedZone distribution rights from the league in exchange for a 10% ownership stake in ESPN, the network has launched its first major round of layoffs in three years.
Most of the cuts are being driven by the NFL Network acquisition, according to an internal memo from ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro obtained by Front Office Sports.
Pitaro’s memo reads:
“Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN. Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today.
