Bob Iger named Disney CEO in shocking development

Via CNN Business
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In a move that shocked Hollywood, Bob Iger, one of the most notable CEOs in the history of the Walt Disney company, is returning to once again run the media empire.

Bob Chapek, who replaced Iger in 2020 as CEO, is stepping down immediately.

“We thank Bob Chapek for his service to Disney over his long career, including navigating the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic,” Susan Arnold, Chairman of the Board for Disney, said in a statement on Sunday night. “The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period.”

The announcement, while surprising to the media industry, comes at a time of great evolution for Disney. The company is coming off a lackluster earnings report that showed growth for its streaming endeavors. However, that came at a great cost. Disney’s streaming business lost $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter. That report sent Disney’s stock tumbling after a year of sluggish to bad performance.

Chapek guided the company through the pandemic, one of its most tumultuous periods in its nearly 100-year history, but ultimately Disney decided that its future was in better hands with Iger.

Away from the pandemic, Chapek had a short but bumpy tenure as the head of Disney. Chapek, who served as chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products before taking over for Iger, found himself dealing with issues regarding pay with Scarlett Johansson, one of the company’s biggest stars, as well as Disney’s battles with Florida, and its own employees, regarding the state’s controversial bill restricting certain LGBTQ topics in the classroom.

Disney’s stock has also taken a hit lately. It’s currently down roughly 40% this year.

As for Iger, he has an almost mythical status as the leader of Disney (DIS). He spent 15 years as CEO and was instrumental in acquiring major brands like Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, the home to Star Wars. Iger also closed the $71 billion deal to buy most of 21st Century Fox and kicked off the streaming revolution at Disney (DIS) with the creation of Disney (DIS)+ in November 2019.

Iger stayed on at Disney as executive chairman directing the company’s creative endeavors. He officially left the company after nearly 50 years at the end of last year.

Disney said Sunday that Iger has agreed to serve as CEO for two years with “a mandate from the Board to set the strategic direction for renewed growth and to work closely with the Board in developing a successor to lead the Company at the completion of his term.”

The move is also surprising since Chapek just renewed his contract. The company’s board of directors unanimously voted to extend Chapek’s contract as CEO for another three years, the company said in June. Chapek’s new contract began in July and was set to run until 2025.

Also, it appeared that Iger was set in retirement with his legacy as one of Disney’s most notable and successful CEOs. Now, he’s back.

“I am extremely optimistic for the future of this great company and thrilled to be asked by the Board to return as its CEO,” Iger said in a statement Sunday. “Disney and its incomparable brands and franchises hold a special place in the hearts of so many people around the globe—most especially in the hearts of our employees, whose dedication to this company and its mission is an inspiration.”

Iger added that he is “deeply honored to be asked to again lead this remarkable team, with a clear mission focused on creative excellence to inspire generations through unrivaled, bold storytelling.”

 

[Sinner's Sandwich]

Does that mean more or less child grooming?

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Bob Niger lol

 

[Stoneheart]

The debt, according to Florida’s statute, goes to the government if the district is dissolved. It doesn’t go to the land owners like Disney itself. It does go to the local government, but that’s still part of Florida’s government.

the local government of 2 towns that are owned by Disney... also every debt always falls to the landowners in the end, they will need higher taxes and/or cut down services to balance the books.

It’s created a fucked situation which is why DeSantis’ government quickly started talking about trying to work something out with Disney.

yeah, its the best for everyone involved to solve this quickly and give Disney a new, normal special needs district. but thats still a giant loss for Disney.

Maybe DeSantis’ people are wrong and it’d work out great doing nothing at this point, but we may never get to see because the Florida GOP will probably quietly give into Disney.

https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2015/Chapter189/All

Or you just got bad information about what desantis people are doing...

you are even citing the same stuff as CNN. Chapter 189 has nothing to do with Disneys special district. It regulates normal special districts, Disney had its own very special district created by a special law.

 

[SBG]

the local government of 2 towns that are owned by Disney... also every debt always falls to the landowners in the end, they will need higher taxes and/or cut down services to balance the books.


yeah, its the best for everyone involved to solve this quickly and give Disney a new, normal special needs district. but thats still a giant loss for Disney.




Or you just got bad information about what desantis people are doing...

you are even citing the same stuff as CNN. Chapter 189 has nothing to do with Disneys special district. It regulates normal special districts, Disney had its own very special district created by a special law.

If it’s wrong statute then that’s my bad, but cite the actual statute then that supports the idea that Disney would have the bond debt forced on it. Because I haven’t seen evidence anywhere that it’d be the case other than random bluster from politicians who don’t want to look bad.

Because ultimately I’m skeptical that Florida really thought through the consequences of messing with the district. It caused DeSantis to go out saying the state would take control rather than have a nearby county deal with a tax increase. Which also messes with the idea some were cheering on that this was going to really mess over a bunch of Democrats living nearby.

DeSantis says state will take control of Disney's Reedy Creek district

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday the state, rather than any local government, would take control of a taxing district that benefits Walt Disney Co. when the district is dissolved next year.

www.fox13news.com

 

[AnOminous]

Iger's also the guy who made Disney into the juggernaut it is today. Like buying both Marvel and Star Wars was under his watch.

And then dousing one of them in gasoline and setting it off like the Joker burning a pile of money.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

The fact that Disney went broke under woke (and lost their sweetheart self-governing deal by poking the state with the tolerance stick) means it's even worse than just being a member of the raindow mafia, he's also an incompetent cheapskate.

Yeah that's what happens when you get high on your own supply, you're not supposed to do that.

They forgot that the degenerate shit they were peddling was purely to extract profit from dumbfucks, they bought into it, and as a result got a little too righteous and thought dealing with irl politicians would be as easy as telling displeased fans to suck it.

Turns out "You're racist and homophobic" doesn't work on people who have actual power over you and don't buy into what you're selling.

They managed to piss off both their overlords and their underlings at the same time, that's really impressive.

 

[Stoneheart]

If it’s wrong statute then that’s my bad, but cite the actual statute then that supports the idea that Disney would have the bond debt forced on it. Because I haven’t seen evidence anywhere that it’d be the case other than random bluster from politicians who don’t want to look bad.

there is no actual statute for it because its a very special district. Its regulated by a patchwork of laws and parts of the constitution.
the debt is with the 2 dities that make up the special district and can not be transfered to the county or the state. the state could vote to bailout the cities, buts thats unlikely.

Because ultimately I’m skeptical that Florida really thought through the consequences of messing with the district. It caused DeSantis to go out saying the state would take control rather than have a nearby county deal with a tax increase. Which also messes with the idea some were cheering on that this was going to really mess over a bunch of Democrats living nearby.

they had those plans for decades and Desantis just pulled the trigger. nobody that wasnt payed by disney liked the super special district they had.

also that article is horrible bad... the headline has nothing to do with the article and is quoted out of context...
if you read the article you will find stuff like:

"That debt will not end up going to any of these as local governments, it's not going to go to the state government either," DeSantis said. "It's going to absolutely be dealt with (by) the taxpayers who are currently in that district."

and:

"I'd much rather have the state leading that effort, than potentially having local governments," DeSantis said. "First of all, it'd be a cash cow for them if they had Disney. But I'm worried that they would use that as a pretext to raise taxes on people, when that's what they would want to do anyways, and then try to blame Reedy Creek."

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

I thought we had seen the last of this kike globohomo terrorst.. it's all so tiresome.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Disney stock has went up, so seem stock market least likes this move. Doubt Iger will say for longer than 2 year, mostly about having someone with a proven track record and who the shareholders like until they find a better replacement.

But Disney have a lot of issues right now.
1. Unable to create new ips, and are over reliant on old ones
2. Disney+ is still bleeding billions
3. Hulu issue, Disney have to buy Comcast's 33% stake in Hulu in 2024 which isn't cheap and will add billions to Disney debt.
4. Total mismanagement of 20th century studios, with no idea on how to market titles, what titles to even greenlight and the total gutting of the amount of movies they make.
5. Disney+ growth as slow down considerably

After the Fox buyout, Disney can't afford losing billion a year like the $4 billion they did this year.

Don't forget the fact the Parks are a total shitshow right now.

• Even Disney loyalists called them out on their bullshit when the D23 parks panel reveals amounted to a bunch of Blue Sky wishlisting and nothing actually concrete.
• Epcot is still a giant construction zone that focused on stuff that wasn't rebuilding the proper Journey into Imagination that people have been demanding for decades at this point. Sure, they'll shit out those stupid Figment popcorn buckets, but they won't fix his fucking ride when it would be possibly the single biggest thing they could do in an entire year and it would keep people happy
• Monorails continue to fall apart with no replacement in sight, despite being an iconic asset of the park
• Star Wars Hotel is rumored to be only operating at 25% capacity and it's been less than a year since opening
• Rise of the Resistance is turning into the worst mechanical nightmare Disney has had in over a decade to the point it rarely works as intended even in B mode.
• They're still going ahead with that dumbass Splash Mountain retheme project
• The TRON Lightcycle coaster, a clone of the original in Tokyo, has been under construction for the better part of a decade and still isn't fucking open!

But most of all...they have fucking nothing up their sleeve to combat Universal in Orlando when Epic Worlds opens in two years. Super Mario Nintendo Land alone, which is 75% a copy of one already built in Japan (the new 25% being the DK Jungle sub-land with that sick looking DK coaster), beats the shit out of anything Disney's done in the last decade.

It wouldn't surprise me if Disney temporarily shutters one of the parks entirely to cut operating costs in the near future, probably EPCOT.

 

[Aqua Panda]

Chapek feels like an intentional fall guy and scapegoat for all the bad shit Iger did. Iger left right at the high before the pandemic and all the woke shit came home to roost and now has someone to blame now that he is back in power. Almost all the crap from the last few years started under Iger's watch. Chapek didn't really get to do sqaut during his tenure.

Iger went on a spending spree during the 2010's and it + the pandemic has left Disney with a pretty massive debt load. All while looking down the gun for the absolute shitshow 2023 is looking to be economically.

Plus, all the pandering and investment to China has backfired horribly and the CCP could easily take over Disney China in a heartbeat if they don't get what they want. That would be billions down the tubes.

Chapek wanted to cut costs and dial stuff back bigtime from the free money days. Those hiring freezes and cuts must have scared people big time.

Edit: And as other have mentioned, Universal is fucking ascendant right now with the Harry Potter and forthcoming Nintendo additions to their park. Disney doesn't have any plans to roll out shit. Their golden ticket was a Star Wars themed hotel and shopping mall the bombed hard.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

But most of all...they have fucking nothing up their sleeve to combat Universal in Orlando when Epic Worlds opens in two years. Super Mario Nintendo Land alone, which is 75% a copy of one already built in Japan (the new 25% being the DK Jungle sub-land with that sick looking DK coaster), beats the shit out of anything Disney's done in the last decade.

This is probably their greatest threat. I don’t know about you but I don’t have much desire to go to their parks but Universal on the other hand…

 

[Gar For Archer]

Don't forget the fact the Parks are a total shitshow right now.

• Even Disney loyalists called them out on their bullshit when the D23 parks panel reveals amounted to a bunch of Blue Sky wishlisting and nothing actually concrete.
• Epcot is still a giant construction zone that focused on stuff that wasn't rebuilding the proper Journey into Imagination that people have been demanding for decades at this point. Sure, they'll shit out those stupid Figment popcorn buckets, but they won't fix his fucking ride when it would be possibly the single biggest thing they could do in an entire year and it would keep people happy
• Monorails continue to fall apart with no replacement in sight, despite being an iconic asset of the park
• Star Wars Hotel is rumored to be only operating at 25% capacity and it's been less than a year since opening
• Rise of the Resistance is turning into the worst mechanical nightmare Disney has had in over a decade to the point it rarely works as intended even in B mode.
• They're still going ahead with that dumbass Splash Mountain retheme project
• The TRON Lightcycle coaster, a clone of the original in Tokyo, has been under construction for the better part of a decade and still isn't fucking open!

But most of all...they have fucking nothing up their sleeve to combat Universal in Orlando when Epic Worlds opens in two years. Super Mario Nintendo Land alone, which is 75% a copy of one already built in Japan (the new 25% being the DK Jungle sub-land with that sick looking DK coaster), beats the shit out of anything Disney's done in the last decade.

It wouldn't surprise me if Disney temporarily shutters one of the parks entirely to cut operating costs in the near future, probably EPCOT.

Don’t they still make a solid chunk of their revenue from the parks? It would probably take a LOT more degradation before enough Disney consoomers boycott the park to make shutting it down to be the most economic option. It’s true that the parks have a worse profit margin than movies, but as far as I’m aware they still make up the bulk of Disney’s revenue stream.

Also, Universal has always been better than Disney. I went to both on a school trip maybe around 2012-2013ish (right when Harry Potter world opened) and the amount of stuff to do between the two parks were night and day. Disney felt like it was mostly just trying to get you to buy food/merch, whereas Universal felt like it actually wanted you to have a good time. Maybe it’s because Universal knows that a lot of their IP just doesn’t have the same inherent draw as Disney, so they need to compensate by actually making that shit good.

 

[Alabaster Disaster]

Why does Bob Chapek's Wikipedia article photo look like it was taken by an undercover fed investigating a mob boss

 

[Stoneheart]

Don’t they still make a solid chunk of their revenue from the parks? It would probably take a LOT more degradation before enough Disney consoomers boycott the park to make shutting it down to be the most economic option. It’s true that the parks have a worse profit margin than movies, but as far as I’m aware they still make up the bulk of Disney’s revenue stream.

The Parks have a much better margin than the movies, but Disney cant have the parks lose much rev or they are fucked.
they have alot of debt and they need the parks, the ships and ESPN to bring in cash or they will struggle alot with their debt.

 

[vern]

I wish they brought back Michel Eisner instead.

 

[tehpope]

I wish they brought back Michel Eisner instead.

you'd also need frank wells and Katzenberg too. But wells is long dead and eisner and Katz have burnt their bridges. Those three kept each other in line.

 

[Aqua Panda]

Remember they took out huge billion dollar loans to survive at the start of the pandemic when everything shut down.

The 2010's spending spree and especially the Fox deal (which they horrifically overpaid for) left them with effectively nothing in the tank. Add in the covid loans and you have a situation where they are going to have trouble servicing their debt in a big market downturn.

Those terrible 4th quarter reports and stock drops are only really the begining. 2023 is not going to be a nice time economically for the world. It's going to be a hard recession and many companies will need to drastically tighten their belts or die.

 

[SBG]

there is no actual statute for it because its a very special district. Its regulated by a patchwork of laws and parts of the constitution.
the debt is with the 2 dities that make up the special district and can not be transfered to the county or the state. the state could vote to bailout the cities, buts thats unlikely.


they had those plans for decades and Desantis just pulled the trigger. nobody that wasnt payed by disney liked the super special district they had.

also that article is horrible bad... the headline has nothing to do with the article and is quoted out of context...
if you read the article you will find stuff like:

and:

So they voted to change a statute that doesn’t exist and won’t have to take on the debt because DeSantis went “nuh uh”.

Are you just retarded?

 

[Product Placement]

I think the main reason Iger is coming back is Disney is paranoid about De Santis's re-election. Since it's entirely probable Florida will cut Disney World off from the privileges it has. Things like private policing/fire. If they do that they'd either need to shut the park down or remodel it so it's substantially smaller. Iger apparently has a lot of political connections (He was in-fact speculated at one point to be considering running for President of the USA) so I can imagine him being seen as better by the board there to try and negotiate with the government. I doubt it'll work though since it's unlikely Iger will slow down the woke nonsense anytime soon.

Chapek will 100% go down in history as one of the worst heads of Disney in history and will probably be personified as a pussy who kept being told what to do by his staff and never made any decisions of his own. Like everyone expected him to finally fire Kathleen but he continued to let her fail upwards.

Iger's also the guy who made Disney into the juggernaut it is today. Like buying both Marvel and Star Wars was under his watch. 100% George wouldn't have sold to anyone other than Iger since he knew him personally as an executive who didn't cancel the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles when he still worked in television. People are hoping he might right the ship but I find it somewhat unlikely he will.

Mean he also turned Disney around so they could afford buying both Marvel and Star Wars. He really turned the business around he replaced Michael Eisner.

Pixar was ready to leave Disney before he took over due to Eisner, but Iger was not only able to mend that relationship but made a deal to purchase Pixar, he also saved the failing Disney animation department getting them to start making hits again.

Business wise he made a lot of good moves, mean just look at Disney stock before he became CEO and when he left for the first time. However I'm doubtful he has it in it to fix all the issues Disney currently has (not quality issues but issues losing them money). Mean I still question why he did the buy out of Fox, it truly feels like they had no ideas for them outside using content for Disney+ and just let one of the biggest movie studios die when it came to cinematic efforts.

 

[vern]

you'd also need frank wells and Katzenberg too. But wells is long dead and eisner and Katz have burnt their bridges. Those three kept each other in line.

I'm actually starting to get a little convinced that Frank Wells death was an inside job, it lined up a little too well for the globalhomos to fully take over
-Let Eisner go full retard with no one to wrangle him.
-Caused Katzenberg, the most likely person the board would replace him with, to quit.
-Removed the last remaining Disney working in the company along with any influence they had.