News Josh D’Amaro Named Next CEO of The Walt Disney Company

[Captain Barbossa]

See you later Bob, don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

Bobby’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Spot on the board and Senior Advisor until the end of the year. He’ll be behind Joshy Boi’s shoulder carefully watching every move he makes.

 

[el_super]

I’d call that just mild market uncertainty. Yesterday was an actual negative reaction.

Wall Street responded negatively to the news that they were spending $60B on parks and experiences. Picking the parks guy to be CEO is in line with their general disdain for the theme park business. Generally can be see as an acknowledgement that the entertainment business is not expected to ever recover.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Wall Street responded negatively to the news that they were spending $60B on parks and experiences. Picking the parks guy to be CEO is in line with their general disdain for the theme park business. Generally can be see as an acknowledgement that the entertainment business is not expected to ever recover.

Also an acknowledgment that wall street is super dumb and makes no sense ever, truly.

 

[eddie104]

I’m excited to see what Josh brings to the table.

No conspiracies over here just hoping for the best for him.

Dana Walden staying on is a major plus.

Good riddance to Iger.

Time for new and younger blood.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

I’m wondering if this is going to turn the parks chief position into a stepping stone to the CEO. Will be interested to see who gets named.

 

[bmr1591]

…recession inbound

Perhaps, but this doesn't have to be a death warrant for the person in charge. Chapek was obviously dealt a terrible hand with Covid and handled it poorly. Josh may deal with an incoming recession, but that doesn't mean it has to be a time of failure. Instead, he can provide actual leadership and guide the company through it.

He’s not going to be amazing. He’s part of the problem and presided over the stupid park decisions, price increases, and infiltration of IP everywhere.

In his position, you can only do what the man above you says. You can provide insight and wisdom on what will be best, but you have to play the game to get into position to control the game. Hopefully he will do good for the parks. We'll have to wait and see though.

 

[DonniePeverley]

Good grief ... give me strength

 

[Chef Mickey]

Perhaps, but this doesn't have to be a death warrant for the person in charge. Chapek was obviously dealt a terrible hand with Covid and handled it poorly. Josh may deal with an incoming recession, but that doesn't mean it has to be a time of failure. Instead, he can provide actual leadership and guide the company through it.



In his position, you can only do what the man above you says. You can provide insight and wisdom on what will be best, but you have to play the game to get into position to control the game. Hopefully he will do good for the parks. We'll have to wait and see though.

We’ll see. Market hates it. I hope Iger was so bad he was making Josh do stupid things too, but why didn’t Josh make his case better is my concern. He went along with it.

 

[DonniePeverley]

Wall Street responded negatively to the news that they were spending $60B on parks and experiences. Picking the parks guy to be CEO is in line with their general disdain for the theme park business. Generally can be see as an acknowledgement that the entertainment business is not expected to ever recover.

It's short termism that drives the markets. Most know that the 60 billion (and it will be much lower than that i assume) is a guarentee income long term.

You could invest in multiple movies, play russian roullette and lose billions.

It's only the parks that are guarenteed earners, everything else is a risk.

 

[TalkingHead]

Given the nature of the business today, this probably doesn’t result in any major changes, right?

IMO Andor remains the only meaningful piece of IP media Disney has produced in more than five years, and it’s unlikely they’d greenlight that today.

New leadership always deserves a chance for the sake of fairness but I’d be shocked if five years from now the consensus is Disney has experienced a new creative renaissance. Feels like this is an era of inertia.

 

[Disney Analyst]

We’ll see. Market hates it. I hope Iger was so bad he was making Josh do stupid things too, but why didn’t Josh make his case better is my concern. He went along with it.

Do you know something about what happened internally that we don’t? For all we know Josh did pushback? Or he fully spearheaded the changes himself. Who freaking knows.

 

[bmr1591]

We’ll see. Market hates it. I hope Iger was so bad he was making Josh do stupid things too, but why didn’t Josh make his case better is my concern. He went along with it.

The market hates anything parks related, so that's not surprising. We really don't know the conversations that were had behind closed doors and if he did or didn't try to make cases. That said, people play the game to climb the ladder. We can only hope that now that he's at the top, he can change strategy to be more effective.


On a side note, after all the stories I've heard about how Vahle views the parks and his stinginess to spend anything for a better quality product, I really hope he doesn't come anywhere near the open Parks position.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Do you know something about what happened internally that we don’t? For all we know Josh did pushback? Or he fully spearheaded the changes himself. Who freaking knows.

I know the result. His pushback didn’t work and he should have done something about it.

 

[Chef Mickey]

The market hates anything parks related, so that's not surprising. We really don't know the conversations that were had behind closed doors and if he did or didn't try to make cases. That said, people play the game to climb the ladder. We can only hope that now that he's at the top, he can change strategy to be more effective.

They should have brought in outside talent, IMO. Josh was part of the problem unless you just blame Iger completely. I definitely blame Iger, but Josh was a decision maker and influencer. He just didn’t get it done.

 

[el_super]

Also an acknowledgment that wall street is super dumb and makes no sense ever, truly.

As a parks fan, I will admit there is some sense to it. The parks are large, they are expensive to maintain and operate and there is tremendous downward pressure on tickets/admission prices. The return from the parks business has never been all that great compared to movies, tv and cable, but it has been far more consistent.

But picking Josh is another sign that we could be one significant tourism downturn away from the company being sold off and broken up.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I know the result. His pushback didn’t work and he should have done something about it.

So you live in a fantasy world and don’t realize how companies really work… especially when you have someone like Iger at the helm.

 

[networkpro]

At least he's not an overt political beast like Dana Walden. We'll see how he is as a business leader.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Josh may deal with an incoming recession,

There is no recession for the folks who can afford to go to Disneyparks.

 

[Smoky]

Probably the least bad choice out of the alleged candidates that were floated. If he fires Jeff Vahle (the true villain of WDW) then I'll be on board. If he keeps the status quo, which is the most likely scenario, I think it'll be more of the same that we saw from Bob. The biggest silver lining I can see here is that Josh at least seems SOMEWHAT willing to listen to Imagineering and I think he'd give them a bit more leeway with IP/new attractions/etc. I mean we have seen some positive changes at Imagineering in the last year or two, right?

 

[Chef Mickey]

So you live in a fantasy world and don’t realize how companies really work… especially when you have someone like Iger at the helm.

I work at a company much bigger than Disney and sit next to the CEO. You can influence the CEO if you’re good. Josh isn’t good enough or he agrees with him. Both are bad.