Disney beats expectations in its first earnings report under CEO Josh D'Amaro

• Disney topped Wall Street's estimates in its latest quarter.
• The earnings report comes weeks after Mouse House conducted a major round of layoffs.
• CEO Josh D'Amaro has faced several unexpected challenges since replacing Bob Iger.

Josh D'Amaro's Disney just exceeded expectations after a hectic few weeks.

Disney's revenue grew 7% to $25.2 billion in its quarter ending March 28, the company said on Wednesday morning, which was above the estimate of $24.87 billion from analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Earnings per share rose 8% to $1.57 per share, excluding certain charges, compared to Wall Street's consensus estimate of $1.51 per share.

D'Amaro's honeymoon didn't last long

It's been an eventful few weeks at the Mouse House.

Less than a month after D'Amaro took over for longtime CEO Bob Iger, Disney announced a major round of layoffs. The mid-April reorg hit marketing teams especially hard. Laid-off employees were given severance pay based on their level and tenure, Business Insider reported.

The Mouse House is also contending with the FCC, which filed an unusual early renewal request of ABC's broadcast licenses — days after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about Melania Trump that provoked the anger of the first lady and President Trump.

Another curveball came when OpenAI canceled its deal with Disney, which would have put AI-generated videos on Disney+ and given employees access to the enterprise version of ChatGPT. Disney ended up putting short-form vertical clips on its flagship streamer anyway, as have rivals Paramount+, Peacock, and Netflix.

And in D'Amaro's first week as CEO, the company shelved the debut of one of its biggest shows, "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," after a controversy around star Taylor Frankie Paul.

Embracing AI

Disney also recently cut stock-based compensation for some tech staffers, Business Insider reported.

The Mouse House has also been encouraging employees to use AI and has created an "AI Adoption Dashboard," Business Insider reported. Some staffers are using chatbots tens of thousands of times per month, and some who don't use AI have gotten check-in messages from their higher-ups.

Disney also shook up its streaming commerce and data teams after the departure of Ajay Arora, formerly the SVP of product management and engineering, Business Insider reported.