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Disney CEO Bob Iger immediately steps down from CEO position

301 points by smaili 7y ago

a_band 7y ago
Is this unexpected? All the headlines make it sound like there's some sort of scandal.
- finaliteration 7y ago
  In the article it states he was only 14 months into a 36 month contract extension, so it was unexpected based on the timing of his contract.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- slg 7y ago
  Yes, this is unexpected. Companies of this size like to announce big news well in advance. A change in leadership that is effective immediately seems to imply that something sudden happened. That could include Iger being presented with a better opportunity (maybe a pending VP nomination), a sudden change in life priorities (maybe health scare for him or a family member), or an attempt to get out in front of a scandal.
- uptown 7y ago
  It’s a little goofy.
  - gaogao 7y ago
    It's an extremely goofy move.
- subsubzero 7y ago
  Really unexpected for a company as well run as Disney. A few things: -Disney+ - Seems to be doing incredibly well. -China market - Both parks and movies will be extremely hard hit near turn, also with Mulan coming out soon will prb be really bad numbers(surprised they did not move release date). -Domestic parks and European parks may take a hit as fares increases(US only?) and virus worries keep people away. -2020 films are not the heavy hitters that 2019 was, expect less revenue here and still less due to virus issues. So despite disney+ doing well a few dark clouds on the horizon, I'm really hoping its not something health related.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
adaisadais 7y ago
This is pretty shocking to me. I literally just got my shareholder information in the mail. When I bought Disney stock it was a 20th century management style company. Now it's one of my best Blue Chips. Bob Iger's leadership has helped make Disney into the media behemoth we now pretty much can't escape whenever we turn on the tv or check the news. I only hope that there are no scandals that are the cause of his move from CEO to Executive Chairman.
ancorevard 7y ago
Bob Iger has long voiced his desire to retire, it's been postponed several times. He wrote about it at length in his most recent book. Just pulled the trigger.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  Plus everyone is ignoring that he's not leaving the company for a while. If it was anything bad, like some people are wrongly suggesting, he wouldn't be switching roles.
  - ancorevard 7y ago
    He also states he will focus now as Disney Chairman more on the creative side "because that becomes our biggest priority in 2021".
- chipotle_coyote 7y ago
  Surely you can see why "I have decided to retire right now, effective immediately, today, not even finishing out the week, going home this afternoon and never comin' back see y'all on the golf course" is going to raise a few eyebrows. It's... not the way this sort of thing is usually handled.
  - ancorevard 7y ago
    Yes, that would raise eyebrows, except that's not the case here at all.
    - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
      Those weren't his literal words, but I trust you get my point: in most cases, this sort of transition is handled with something like "Joe Foobar will step down as FoobarCo's CEO at the end of next month, transitioning to [insert obviously ceremonial position]." This is an immediate transition to a position which isn't obviously ceremonial at all. I'm not suggesting anything tragic like a fatal illness, a #MeToo event, or a presidential run, but only suggesting that this is an unusually-handled event. Look at his predecessor Michael Eisner, who was forced to resign after losing a boardroom battle -- Iger was announced as the next CEO in March 2005, but Eisner didn't actually leave until the end of September 2005, over six months later.
jshevek 7y ago
"Speculation is still high for the exact reason behind Iger’s departure, with many hoping for something benign (ish) like a presidential run versus a personal issue." This country seems desperate for the hope of better leadership.
- tedajax 7y ago
  Wish they'd stop looking to CEOs then.
  - hlmencken 7y ago
    Unless leadership skills have any overlap in the private and public space.
    - astrodust 7y ago
      Representing shareholders and representing an entire population are two different things.
    - bsder 7y ago
      They don't. CEO's don't have to build consensus. They can, and do, purge their ranks of dissidents. Iger, in particular, has been aggressive about this over time. You cannot simply "fire" the people who disagree with you when you are President. We have seen what happens when you try to do that.
      - gwright 7y ago
        Of course the President can fire the people who disagree with him. In fact he should do that if the people are preventing the implementation of the President's lawful policies. The Constitution is pretty darn clear on this point: Article 2. Section 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. Of course it is also possible for a President to make poor decisions, but the trend towards criminalizing policy differences is not a healthy one. Elections are the solution to poor executive decisions, which is NOT the same thing as unlawful actions.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
madrox 7y ago
As a former Disney employee and someone who's kept up with internal politics, even though his contract was up at the end of next year this feels sudden and not in line with how Disney tends to do things. Disney has quite a number of disparate businesses, from theme parks to streaming services to movies. Chapek is a business guy that has done consumer products and parks (parts of the business that aren't huge growth areas), and hasn't even been president of parks for that long. He has no experience on the creative side. Usually the future CEO is appointed to a COO/President role in order to help them learn the parts of the business they don't have experience in. It also helps vet if they'll be capable of leading all those business heads, which is how they determined not to go with Tom Staggs after he was made COO. Not doing this is pretty irregular, especially with all the shakeup that occurred with Fox. They're still working through a lot of that. Similarly, I don't buy the story that Iger is moving into a creative leadership role. It's true there's been a vacuum there since Lasseter left, but unless there's long term tenure planned, Iger won't be very influential. Anyone who's worked at a large company knows that no one listens to the guy whose only responsibility is to have creative ideas if they have no other real responsibility and will be out in a few months. Iger put himself into a meaningless, insignificant role, and no one has satisfactorily explained why. I don't think there's a scandal. If there was, the narrative around his departure would be different and he wouldn't be sticking out to the end of his contract. He wouldn't still be chairman of the board. I've heard a rumor the board is upset about Star Wars, but Q1 2020 was pretty solid and Mandalorian was well received. I'm actually worried he's sick, though I hope not because I admire him a lot. Regardless, I do feel like there's another shoe. I guess we'll have to wait to find out what it is.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
  When CEOs unexpectedly leave, don't they usually do it because they know something? Have there been CEOs in the past that have "left", but actually been forced out due to scandal? It seems like there's been a few attempts at that, but of the cases I know, the CEOs seem to fight back and try to keep their position.
SiFiPi 7y ago
Is it possible that he believes that the markets will take a hit in the near future with the virus scares these last two days? If I were CEO of a behemoth giant like Disney and held the credit for its rising in several industries, I'd bounce ship before it all went down to avoid any blame? Maybe I'm naive, but this thought crossed my mind.
- drchiu 7y ago
  Bought shares today due to the general market drop. Bought more after hours after this announcement. My gut tells me it’s due to some personal reason. Perhaps health. Time will tell. Company is good and has a lot of great brands and assets.
  - SiFiPi 7y ago
    I see, but is it possible that he suspects a large sell off of excess fat or even a large downturn after the presidential elections, and this recent downturn just reminded him of this idea?
    - calny 7y ago
      Interesting possibility but I don’t think so. Obviously I can’t say what he’s thinking, but I doubt he’d believe it would help his legacy to abandon his role in the middle of market difficulties after the worst 3-day stretch in recent memory.
- jcranmer 7y ago
  COVID-2019 is going to hit everybody more or less to the same degree. The only people who are going to be significantly damaged by it are those who bet everything on doing good in 2020 (which is still more likely to be seen as bad luck than poor skill), or those who manage to absolutely screw the handling up.
  - LatteLazy 7y ago
    Disney will likely gain from it: what better time to be selling digital subscription services than when everyone is locked up in their houses and schools are closing?
gkoberger 7y ago
I just finished his book last night (it's a really good read), and this feels weird to me. It was clear he was going to leave soon, but why now? He talked so much about succession plans and outward appearances (like, that was most of the book, honestly...), and this feels so weird that out of nowhere Bob Chapek became CEO. He doesn't seem (at the surface) to represent what Iger does, and there was no clear succession plan or public narrative put forward. (Like, really, the whole book was about 50 years of succession plans and presenting things in a way that wouldn't cause issues externally... and this was the opposite of that.) I also remember thinking how poor Eisner's legacy came off in his book, and was sure he'd optimize for a great legacy. He is ending his tenure on a relatively high note for the company, but something about the exact timing feels really off to me. Especially right after such a huge press tour for himself. I don't think it's a scandal; he wouldn't stick around. The only thing I can think of is a political run (maybe not for president? Seems too late for that, and he seems to smart to run for something he can't win), or possibly family issues (sickness, etc).
- texasbigdata 7y ago
  He also has been on every TV show and podcast he could be recently. Like it's as if he calendared retiring and he is executing on post retirement plans (book and publicity) without stepping down. If he's checked out and not working...and the next guy is identified and in waiting....it's reasonable the board would boot him early. Heck in his own book while Bob was waiting to be CEO he approached Goldman to do the Pixar deal. Which is super....well.....forward looking / potentially undermining to the current CEO. Maybe history repeats.
justlexi93 7y ago
After some issues that he has faced this month, he finally gives up his title/position that must be tough for him.
chriscatoya 7y ago
He was ready to retire anyway and I think he's getting out of dodge while the going is good. He successfully launched their streaming service, and if I were him, I'd also want to get as far away as possible from the hospitality industry given how the spread of covid-19 is going.
primordialsoup 7y ago
I read "ride of a lifetime" by Bob Iger last month. It was a pretty nice book, similar to ShoeDog by Phil Knight. I learnt a lot about leadership, about Bob himself and started to like him (even though I had no idea about him before the book). A few things that stuck with me: 1. Have three priorities or less. Otherwise people can't relate. Jim Collins also said: "If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any". 2. He did everything to show that he cared about what his people were doing. He would take part in many aspects of the star wars movie (and be there). This sent a message, a good one. 3. Earning trust is important. He did Pixar acquisition well. That earned the trust of Marvel CEO. I recommend checking that book out.
- dylanz 7y ago
  I'm halfway into that audio book (which is self-narrated) and so far it's been great. Point #2 is definitely a theme. He seemed to truly care about what impact his actions would have on his employees and consumers.
tdburn 7y ago
He ruined Star Wars
kick 7y ago
It was announced in April, so I'm not sure exactly why people are saying it's sudden. Am I missing something? (Stupid headline, but it's what Wikipedia had cited for it prior to this month.) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abigail-disney-tells-house-committee-ceo-bob-igers-65m-pay-is-a-moral-issue/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abigail-disney-tells-house-comm...
- stan_rogers 7y ago
  The "walking away" in that statement had nothing to do with leaving the company, it was about his take-home.
  - kick 7y ago
    The revision history of the article that cites that post is really interesting, I guess someone in the know let on more than they were supposed to? https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Iger&oldid=928585142 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Iger&oldid=92...
jb775 7y ago
Probably just taking advantage of the massive market downswing yesterday/today. They know the Disney stock price is going to tank in the short term along with the rest of the market, might as well rip off the band-aid of Iger leaving while people are already selling.
vkaku 7y ago
Board of Directors appoints budget conscious CEO, top line drops 2.53%. Who's running the board?
- CGamesPlay 7y ago
  NASDAQ dropped 2.77%, seems like Disney beat the curve!
momofarm 7y ago
Hey new emperor of mouse, how about put starwars charactet into marvel universe, we can make all these even worse.
mroche 7y ago
For anyone who wishes to see the Bobs discuss this change, they had ~10 minute interview on CNBC at 5:30 EST earlier. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/02/25/disneys-bob-iger-i-want-to-spend-more-time-on-creative.html https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/02/25/disneys-bob-iger-i-wan...
newshorts 7y ago
I wonder if he’s scared about coronavirus?
RyanShook 7y ago
Something doesn’t add up here. Why would Disney promote the head of parks in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak? Really odd timing.
- nnq 7y ago
  Parks will temporarily close. He'll have time/space to take on other extra responsibility. Just boring reallocation of human resources?
shmerl 7y ago
Don't forget another "accomplishment" - the Mickey Mouse curve.
ei8htyfi5e 7y ago
Multiple CEOs stepped down today (02/25): Disney, MasterCard, Salesforce, Uber eats. Could it be that their compensation is tied to the stock price and sticking around for a few more months could cost them millions as the coronavirus collapses the world economy?
- neuronic 7y ago
  COVID-19 is not going to collapse anything, although it may disrupt the economy. The CFR is currently estimated at 2-3% of KNOWN cases with an enormous number of unreported cases due to often mild symptoms. While it has and will spread very wide, the vast majority of people will not even experience significant complications. We ARE experiencing a pandemic with significant impact on global economy but it's not a collapse scenario.
- ar_lan 7y ago
  Not sure it's totally accurate to include Salesforce in this type of metric, as that announcement seemed quite different (Marc Benioff is still CEO). However, it is quite interesting that so many timed all at the same (and it seems Bob Iger is the only one most people know/care about).
onefuncman 7y ago
Weird, techcrunch.com is serving an expired SSL certificate. $ openssl s_client -showcerts -servername techcrunch.com -connect techcrunch.com:443 CONNECTED(00000003) depth=2 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = DigiCert Global Root CA verify return:1 depth=1 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, CN = DigiCert SHA2 Secure Server CA verify return:1 depth=0 C = US, ST = Virginia, L = Sterling, O = Oath Inc., OU = SecOps, CN = techcrunch.com verify error:num=10:certificate has expired notAfter=Feb 26 12:00:00 2020 GMT
- stiangrindvoll 7y ago
  Ooops, yea seeing the same thing..
- mirages 7y ago
  Same here : https://crt.sh/?id=2500908236 https://crt.sh/?id=2500908236 12h long certificate
josefrichter 7y ago
Very recently they released a new MasterClass with Bob Iger. It's very unlikely he would engage in that if his plan was to step down soon. Also, if any publicly-traded company CEO steps down so suddenly, there's always some hidden reason behind that...

301 points by smaili 7y ago

a_band 7y ago

Is this unexpected? All the headlines make it sound like there's some sort of scandal.

finaliteration 7y ago
In the article it states he was only 14 months into a 36 month contract extension, so it was unexpected based on the timing of his contract.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
slg 7y ago
Yes, this is unexpected. Companies of this size like to announce big news well in advance. A change in leadership that is effective immediately seems to imply that something sudden happened. That could include Iger being presented with a better opportunity (maybe a pending VP nomination), a sudden change in life priorities (maybe health scare for him or a family member), or an attempt to get out in front of a scandal.
uptown 7y ago
It’s a little goofy.
- gaogao 7y ago
  It's an extremely goofy move.
subsubzero 7y ago
Really unexpected for a company as well run as Disney. A few things: -Disney+ - Seems to be doing incredibly well. -China market - Both parks and movies will be extremely hard hit near turn, also with Mulan coming out soon will prb be really bad numbers(surprised they did not move release date). -Domestic parks and European parks may take a hit as fares increases(US only?) and virus worries keep people away. -2020 films are not the heavy hitters that 2019 was, expect less revenue here and still less due to virus issues. So despite disney+ doing well a few dark clouds on the horizon, I'm really hoping its not something health related.
deleted 7y ago
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deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

adaisadais 7y ago

This is pretty shocking to me. I literally just got my shareholder information in the mail. When I bought Disney stock it was a 20th century management style company. Now it's one of my best Blue Chips. Bob Iger's leadership has helped make Disney into the media behemoth we now pretty much can't escape whenever we turn on the tv or check the news. I only hope that there are no scandals that are the cause of his move from CEO to Executive Chairman.

ancorevard 7y ago

Bob Iger has long voiced his desire to retire, it's been postponed several times. He wrote about it at length in his most recent book. Just pulled the trigger.

dawnerd 7y ago
Plus everyone is ignoring that he's not leaving the company for a while. If it was anything bad, like some people are wrongly suggesting, he wouldn't be switching roles.
- ancorevard 7y ago
  He also states he will focus now as Disney Chairman more on the creative side "because that becomes our biggest priority in 2021".
chipotle_coyote 7y ago
Surely you can see why "I have decided to retire right now, effective immediately, today, not even finishing out the week, going home this afternoon and never comin' back see y'all on the golf course" is going to raise a few eyebrows. It's... not the way this sort of thing is usually handled.
- ancorevard 7y ago
  Yes, that would raise eyebrows, except that's not the case here at all.
  - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
    Those weren't his literal words, but I trust you get my point: in most cases, this sort of transition is handled with something like "Joe Foobar will step down as FoobarCo's CEO at the end of next month, transitioning to [insert obviously ceremonial position]." This is an immediate transition to a position which isn't obviously ceremonial at all. I'm not suggesting anything tragic like a fatal illness, a #MeToo event, or a presidential run, but only suggesting that this is an unusually-handled event. Look at his predecessor Michael Eisner, who was forced to resign after losing a boardroom battle -- Iger was announced as the next CEO in March 2005, but Eisner didn't actually leave until the end of September 2005, over six months later.

jshevek 7y ago

"Speculation is still high for the exact reason behind Iger’s departure, with many hoping for something benign (ish) like a presidential run versus a personal issue." This country seems desperate for the hope of better leadership.

tedajax 7y ago
Wish they'd stop looking to CEOs then.
- hlmencken 7y ago
  Unless leadership skills have any overlap in the private and public space.
  - astrodust 7y ago
    Representing shareholders and representing an entire population are two different things.
  - bsder 7y ago
    They don't. CEO's don't have to build consensus. They can, and do, purge their ranks of dissidents. Iger, in particular, has been aggressive about this over time. You cannot simply "fire" the people who disagree with you when you are President. We have seen what happens when you try to do that.
    - gwright 7y ago
      Of course the President can fire the people who disagree with him. In fact he should do that if the people are preventing the implementation of the President's lawful policies. The Constitution is pretty darn clear on this point: Article 2. Section 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. Of course it is also possible for a President to make poor decisions, but the trend towards criminalizing policy differences is not a healthy one. Elections are the solution to poor executive decisions, which is NOT the same thing as unlawful actions.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

madrox 7y ago

As a former Disney employee and someone who's kept up with internal politics, even though his contract was up at the end of next year this feels sudden and not in line with how Disney tends to do things. Disney has quite a number of disparate businesses, from theme parks to streaming services to movies. Chapek is a business guy that has done consumer products and parks (parts of the business that aren't huge growth areas), and hasn't even been president of parks for that long. He has no experience on the creative side. Usually the future CEO is appointed to a COO/President role in order to help them learn the parts of the business they don't have experience in. It also helps vet if they'll be capable of leading all those business heads, which is how they determined not to go with Tom Staggs after he was made COO. Not doing this is pretty irregular, especially with all the shakeup that occurred with Fox. They're still working through a lot of that. Similarly, I don't buy the story that Iger is moving into a creative leadership role. It's true there's been a vacuum there since Lasseter left, but unless there's long term tenure planned, Iger won't be very influential. Anyone who's worked at a large company knows that no one listens to the guy whose only responsibility is to have creative ideas if they have no other real responsibility and will be out in a few months. Iger put himself into a meaningless, insignificant role, and no one has satisfactorily explained why. I don't think there's a scandal. If there was, the narrative around his departure would be different and he wouldn't be sticking out to the end of his contract. He wouldn't still be chairman of the board. I've heard a rumor the board is upset about Star Wars, but Q1 2020 was pretty solid and Mandalorian was well received. I'm actually worried he's sick, though I hope not because I admire him a lot. Regardless, I do feel like there's another shoe. I guess we'll have to wait to find out what it is.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
When CEOs unexpectedly leave, don't they usually do it because they know something? Have there been CEOs in the past that have "left", but actually been forced out due to scandal? It seems like there's been a few attempts at that, but of the cases I know, the CEOs seem to fight back and try to keep their position.

SiFiPi 7y ago

Is it possible that he believes that the markets will take a hit in the near future with the virus scares these last two days? If I were CEO of a behemoth giant like Disney and held the credit for its rising in several industries, I'd bounce ship before it all went down to avoid any blame? Maybe I'm naive, but this thought crossed my mind.

drchiu 7y ago
Bought shares today due to the general market drop. Bought more after hours after this announcement. My gut tells me it’s due to some personal reason. Perhaps health. Time will tell. Company is good and has a lot of great brands and assets.
- SiFiPi 7y ago
  I see, but is it possible that he suspects a large sell off of excess fat or even a large downturn after the presidential elections, and this recent downturn just reminded him of this idea?
  - calny 7y ago
    Interesting possibility but I don’t think so. Obviously I can’t say what he’s thinking, but I doubt he’d believe it would help his legacy to abandon his role in the middle of market difficulties after the worst 3-day stretch in recent memory.
jcranmer 7y ago
COVID-2019 is going to hit everybody more or less to the same degree. The only people who are going to be significantly damaged by it are those who bet everything on doing good in 2020 (which is still more likely to be seen as bad luck than poor skill), or those who manage to absolutely screw the handling up.
- LatteLazy 7y ago
  Disney will likely gain from it: what better time to be selling digital subscription services than when everyone is locked up in their houses and schools are closing?

gkoberger 7y ago

I just finished his book last night (it's a really good read), and this feels weird to me. It was clear he was going to leave soon, but why now? He talked so much about succession plans and outward appearances (like, that was most of the book, honestly...), and this feels so weird that out of nowhere Bob Chapek became CEO. He doesn't seem (at the surface) to represent what Iger does, and there was no clear succession plan or public narrative put forward. (Like, really, the whole book was about 50 years of succession plans and presenting things in a way that wouldn't cause issues externally... and this was the opposite of that.) I also remember thinking how poor Eisner's legacy came off in his book, and was sure he'd optimize for a great legacy. He is ending his tenure on a relatively high note for the company, but something about the exact timing feels really off to me. Especially right after such a huge press tour for himself. I don't think it's a scandal; he wouldn't stick around. The only thing I can think of is a political run (maybe not for president? Seems too late for that, and he seems to smart to run for something he can't win), or possibly family issues (sickness, etc).

texasbigdata 7y ago
He also has been on every TV show and podcast he could be recently. Like it's as if he calendared retiring and he is executing on post retirement plans (book and publicity) without stepping down. If he's checked out and not working...and the next guy is identified and in waiting....it's reasonable the board would boot him early. Heck in his own book while Bob was waiting to be CEO he approached Goldman to do the Pixar deal. Which is super....well.....forward looking / potentially undermining to the current CEO. Maybe history repeats.

justlexi93 7y ago

After some issues that he has faced this month, he finally gives up his title/position that must be tough for him.

chriscatoya 7y ago

He was ready to retire anyway and I think he's getting out of dodge while the going is good. He successfully launched their streaming service, and if I were him, I'd also want to get as far away as possible from the hospitality industry given how the spread of covid-19 is going.

primordialsoup 7y ago

I read "ride of a lifetime" by Bob Iger last month. It was a pretty nice book, similar to ShoeDog by Phil Knight. I learnt a lot about leadership, about Bob himself and started to like him (even though I had no idea about him before the book). A few things that stuck with me: 1. Have three priorities or less. Otherwise people can't relate. Jim Collins also said: "If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any". 2. He did everything to show that he cared about what his people were doing. He would take part in many aspects of the star wars movie (and be there). This sent a message, a good one. 3. Earning trust is important. He did Pixar acquisition well. That earned the trust of Marvel CEO. I recommend checking that book out.

dylanz 7y ago
I'm halfway into that audio book (which is self-narrated) and so far it's been great. Point #2 is definitely a theme. He seemed to truly care about what impact his actions would have on his employees and consumers.

tdburn 7y ago

He ruined Star Wars

kick 7y ago

It was announced in April, so I'm not sure exactly why people are saying it's sudden. Am I missing something? (Stupid headline, but it's what Wikipedia had cited for it prior to this month.) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abigail-disney-tells-house-committee-ceo-bob-igers-65m-pay-is-a-moral-issue/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abigail-disney-tells-house-comm...

stan_rogers 7y ago
The "walking away" in that statement had nothing to do with leaving the company, it was about his take-home.
- kick 7y ago
  The revision history of the article that cites that post is really interesting, I guess someone in the know let on more than they were supposed to? https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Iger&oldid=928585142 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Iger&oldid=92...

jb775 7y ago

Probably just taking advantage of the massive market downswing yesterday/today. They know the Disney stock price is going to tank in the short term along with the rest of the market, might as well rip off the band-aid of Iger leaving while people are already selling.

vkaku 7y ago

Board of Directors appoints budget conscious CEO, top line drops 2.53%. Who's running the board?

CGamesPlay 7y ago
NASDAQ dropped 2.77%, seems like Disney beat the curve!

momofarm 7y ago

Hey new emperor of mouse, how about put starwars charactet into marvel universe, we can make all these even worse.

mroche 7y ago

For anyone who wishes to see the Bobs discuss this change, they had ~10 minute interview on CNBC at 5:30 EST earlier. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/02/25/disneys-bob-iger-i-want-to-spend-more-time-on-creative.html https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/02/25/disneys-bob-iger-i-wan...

newshorts 7y ago

I wonder if he’s scared about coronavirus?

RyanShook 7y ago

Something doesn’t add up here. Why would Disney promote the head of parks in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak? Really odd timing.

nnq 7y ago
Parks will temporarily close. He'll have time/space to take on other extra responsibility. Just boring reallocation of human resources?

shmerl 7y ago

Don't forget another "accomplishment" - the Mickey Mouse curve.

ei8htyfi5e 7y ago

Multiple CEOs stepped down today (02/25): Disney, MasterCard, Salesforce, Uber eats. Could it be that their compensation is tied to the stock price and sticking around for a few more months could cost them millions as the coronavirus collapses the world economy?

neuronic 7y ago
COVID-19 is not going to collapse anything, although it may disrupt the economy. The CFR is currently estimated at 2-3% of KNOWN cases with an enormous number of unreported cases due to often mild symptoms. While it has and will spread very wide, the vast majority of people will not even experience significant complications. We ARE experiencing a pandemic with significant impact on global economy but it's not a collapse scenario.
ar_lan 7y ago
Not sure it's totally accurate to include Salesforce in this type of metric, as that announcement seemed quite different (Marc Benioff is still CEO). However, it is quite interesting that so many timed all at the same (and it seems Bob Iger is the only one most people know/care about).

onefuncman 7y ago

Weird, techcrunch.com is serving an expired SSL certificate. $ openssl s_client -showcerts -servername techcrunch.com -connect techcrunch.com:443 CONNECTED(00000003) depth=2 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = DigiCert Global Root CA verify return:1 depth=1 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, CN = DigiCert SHA2 Secure Server CA verify return:1 depth=0 C = US, ST = Virginia, L = Sterling, O = Oath Inc., OU = SecOps, CN = techcrunch.com verify error:num=10:certificate has expired notAfter=Feb 26 12:00:00 2020 GMT

stiangrindvoll 7y ago
Ooops, yea seeing the same thing..
mirages 7y ago
Same here : https://crt.sh/?id=2500908236 https://crt.sh/?id=2500908236 12h long certificate

josefrichter 7y ago

Very recently they released a new MasterClass with Bob Iger. It's very unlikely he would engage in that if his plan was to step down soon. Also, if any publicly-traded company CEO steps down so suddenly, there's always some hidden reason behind that...