Disney will take a $157m write-down of Vice Media, the company shared yesterday (9 November) during its quarterly earnings report.
This follows the recent news of Vice Media's plan to cut its staff by as much as 15% through a combination of natural wastage and a hiring freeze, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Disney originally invested $400m in the edgy news outlet in 2015 at a reported valuation of between $4 to $4.5bn.
Vice most recently boasted a $5.7bn valuation as recent as 2017, but it's been downhill since. Vice's current valuation is unclear, but Disney's write-down likely means $2bn drop in value for the Brooklyn-based company.
Vice chief executive Nancy Dubuc has only been at the job for five months. According to WSJ, Vice is on track to lose over $50m this year, and earn between $600m to $650m.
Dubuc is also reportedly planning to consolidate Vice's dozen-or-so verticals by half.
Vice will apparently focus more if its resources on its in-house agency Virtue. Last September, Virtue won Google Chrome’s 10-year anniversary campaign.