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News Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure
- Thread starter wdwmagic
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The Disney Kid
Well-Known Member
That's just the annual February refurb.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Agreed. TWDC will be using the excuse of COVID to make whatever changes they wish for years to come...
Look, things are hard? Do you know how hard it was to collectively save hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that it went into the accounts of executive leaders?
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
It's only funny because it's true..
FantasiaMickey2000
Well-Known Member
At the end of the day the executives are responsible to their shareholders. Their shareholders are mostly made up of working Americans’ 401k plans and public sector union pension funds. The stock is down 25% in the last year and 36% from its all time high during that period. Whether you want to look at the lost profits over the last 2 years or the stock price, they’ve lost billions in the last 2 years. A large capital outlay such as this retheme which adds nothing to the parks compared to a new attraction like Tron should absolutely be cancelled until further notice.
There is a disconnect. They are responsible for their own bonuses. Do you think if the CEO did not give himself more than a 100 percent raise, from 14 million a year to 32 million a year that the Shareholders would be unhappy? What about the CFO and others around that table?
FantasiaMickey2000
Well-Known Member
First of all, the Compensation Committee proposes the executives’ compensation packages and it is approved by shareholder vote. Chapek did not give himself a 100% raise.
Second, the majority of that compensation is not in cash but in stock awards.
Third, yes shareholders would be unhappy. If you tried to pay your C Suite team $1 million a year then no quality individuals would work for your company and would all go to your competition and the company would flounder.
So in summary, the right thing to do for the Company is to cancel/delay the retheme until the Company is in a better financial position to do so.
I was under the impression from Marni that this had been bumped at least a few years back.
Your post just means there is more poison in the soup. The reason the committee is fine with it, because why would someone say know to the top guy going from 14 to 32 million when they can say yes and go from 10 to 15 million? Not many are going to disagree if it means they all get a slice of it too.
And if the splash aspect of your post holds true, than there is a chance the retheme will not be financially responsible to shareholders at all. Or would that still be ok because it is problematic and that is when goodwill that is irrelevant to the shareholders comes in?
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DIS is up 30% from three years ago. Just last month, it was up 50%, but then the DOW as a whole took a dive.
It's easy to cherry-pick data to make the point you want: "DIs execs, bad! Splash retheme financial disaster!"
But determining the financial health of a company by tracking exuberant bubbles (the first from Disney+ news, the second from Disney not going into deficits during a world-wide pandemic) and tracking 'corrections' (taking money out to chase other 'post-pandemic' bubbles, a one quarter miss on *predicted* subscriptions goals) tells you nothing about the long term financial health of a company. It only tells you what day-trading speculators are chasing.
Big profits from operating parks is back according to the last quarterly report. Disney will be awash in cash to do the things they want including erasing Song of the South from being contemporaneously presented as being part of the Disney family of IPs.
FantasiaMickey2000
Well-Known Member
I’m not sure I 100% follow your first paragraph but I am interpreting it to mean that you think the compensation committee is making a ton of money and will receive massive pay raises if they bump Chapek’s pay.
This is not true. Compensation Committees are required by the SEC to be composed of independent directors. Disneys committee consists of Mary Barra (CEO of General Motors), Maria Lagomasino (CEO of WE Family Offices), and Mark Parker (Chairman of Nike). None of these individuals work for the Walt Disney Company.
These individuals are compensated several hundred thousand dollars a year for their role on the board of directors. That’s it.
I would personally argue the retheme is not financially responsible period, but I don’t put the same dollar value of politically correct attractions as management at the Walt Disney Company. I’m sure they do think it’s a value add, but it is likely down on the priority list.
FantasiaMickey2000
Well-Known Member
I knew this post was coming. How far back do you want me to go?
Year to date: DIS down 15%, S&P 500 down 10%, DOW down 8%. Disney is by far the worst performer.
Going back one year: DIS down 22%, S&P up 12%, DOW down 3%. Disney is by far the worst performer
Going back two years: DIS down 4%, S&P up 31%, DOW up 16%.
That’s reality since Chapek took over/the pandemic started.
To go back three years like you did: DIS is up 20%, S&P is up 60%, DOW is up 36%. Disney is by far the worst performer.
You brought up profits from the last quarter. The Parks division made $640 million. That’s sounds good until you consider the Park division lost $199 million the previous 3 quarters of 2021 and lost $81 million during 2020. This is all compared to a segment operating income of $6.8 BILLION in 2019. So your “big profits” would still be only 40% of what they were making prior to the pandemic.
Any way you slice it, the Company has lost billions in profits and cash flow over the last 2 years and the stock has severely underperformed the market. They aren’t making these massive cuts for fun, they are trying to do what’s best for the company as a whole in the long term.
Wait, so they can get not an outrageous increase and you mean still do the responsible job they are supposed to do?
FantasiaMickey2000
Well-Known Member
Their job is not to work for the Walt Disney Company. They are independent directors. Why are you trying to compare apples and oranges?
Ill try to put this in layman’s terms. If you are looking for a job and Walmart says we are only willing to pay $10 an hour and Target is willing to pay $25, where are you and everyone else going to try to work for? It’s the exact same concept here.
If you only want to pay Disneys executives $14M then you won’t get talented individuals running the company. Comcast’s CEO made $32.7M last year. His subordinates at NBCUniversal each made more than $20M. Do you really think talented people are going to work as CEO at Disney for significantly less than the 2nd in command at their competitor?
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
This is why there need to be caps on executive compensation.
FantasiaMickey2000
Well-Known Member
Certainly a fair comment. But those aren’t the rules right now, so Disney has to pay market rates for executive compensation.
Regardless of the pay of Chapek, even if you paid Chapek and the executives $0 for the last 2 years, the parks division lost $12 billion in profits and cash flow compared to if you held pre-pandemic levels flat. That money would have funded projects like the retheme. Since the money isn’t there, certain projects have to be delayed/cancelled.
They will start investing again soon, but I don’t understand why people expect them to keep spending like it’s 2019. That’s all I’m trying to say. They have taken a big hit financially any way you slice it the last 2 years. Once things get better, you’ll see more investment into the parks.
I know what independent means. They are not captive. They could go somewhere competitive that would pay their skills more. That was one of your original points.
And to your other post. The Board of Director's do have weight in what the decision for the wage negotiation is for the CEO. Back to the point of they can all get millions a year increase, why would they say no?
FantasiaMickey2000
Well-Known Member
That’s not what independent means. It means they don’t work for the Walt Disney Company. They already work somewhere else. Bob Chapek is not independent of the Walt Disney Company. Mary Barra is independent of the Walt Disney Company. No matter what Bob and other C suite Disney employees are paid, Mary will not make millions in her role as a director.
Look, we are going in circles here. Bob Chapek making $0 a year ever since he’s been CFO wouldn’t be enough pay for the re-theme. The bottom line is the Company has lost billions of dollars of lost profits and operating cash flow during the pandemic. Therefore, they are making cuts to significant non-essential capital expenditures like the re-theme. It’s the right thing to do in the short and long term for their shareholders which are whom their foremost responsibilities are held. As things improve, reinvestment will resume and projects like these will get underway. I’ll leave it at that.
91JLovesDisney
Well-Known Member
How do you know it hasn't been cancelled? That's all I'm asking
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