News The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors Extends Robert A. Iger’s Contract as CEO Through 2026

[LSLS]

He also left like a complete coward at the beginning of the plague …was the only major ceo to do so…it’s OBVIOUS to everyone…and that took the shine off his turd.

Then he arranged his return…figuring he’d get in on this golden age of stock boom and bread and circuses…
And why? Just because it’s him. That’s what the narcissist always believes.

…if you believe in karma/come-up-ins…this would be textbook

Yeah. I think he thought things were going down badly, and people would remember him fondly because of how things fell off under Chapek, and then they didn't (stock went up, etc.). So when Chapek had all his stupid mistakes that brought stock down, he then saw an opportunity to swoop back in, lift the company back up by saying "Those weren't me, we are back", and he thought he'd be called the greatest CEO in company history. Obviously, all this is me making guesses, but I think what has happened is the issues were much deeper than the stupid PR mistakes and all those short term policies over the past 5-8 years are hampering them now, and that is why he extended his contract (excuse me, the board did) without having any sort of a successor. His name and just saying "Chapek did it" didn't save everything, and he doesn't want to leave at the same or worse levels than they were when he was brought in on the white horse. His sure thing has turned into a disaster.

 

[Dranth]

One problem was the “spiral” had zero to do with Chapek’s ineptitude at the top…

It was a long ticking timebomb and Bob lit the fuse a decade ago…masked by riding the wave of stable economic conditions and the MCU that worked during that period…almost nothing else did

I somewhat disagree in that it depends on which issue you are talking about. That is what determines who gets how much blame for me.

Personally, I feel that the overall direction of a company is too complex to just say good/bad, at least if we want any real insight or analysis of the why. That is where I find it helpful to break out the various factors that drive the overall direction. When we do that, I think most of us see that Iger had lots of issues, but the company as a whole did much better under him than Chapek. Further, it is easy to see where Chapek created plenty of his own problems that had nothing to do with Iger. Just for example...

- The Florida situation leading to the end of Reedy Creek? 100% Chapek. Iger had nothing to do with that.
- Brain drain/talent loss? 100% Chapek. No matter what we think of him, creatives tend to like Iger outside of his IP mandate while they hated Chapek.
- Lack of any development or even plans for development of any of the parks while in charge? 100% Chapek.
- Putting a municipal hospital architect in charge of what remained of the corpse of Imagineering? 100% Chapek.
- Decision to reorg the company and place streaming ahead of all other entertainment despite all the people he consulted on it telling him it wouldn't go well? 100% Chapek.
- Trying to tell us that Halloween after parties were awesome while ignoring a devastatingly bad earnings miss? 100% Chapek.
- Going DIRECTLY against the board on multiple occasions, many of them after agreeing with them in meetings? 100% Chapek.

Now of course Iger should and does take the blame for giving us Chapek to begin with and if someone wants to make an argument Disney was already heading in the toilet before Chapek, that is fine, there is certainly evidence people can point to that would support that, but there is also plenty of evidence on how much the pace accelerated under Chapek and he created all new issues and emergencies for the company all on his own.

Let me put it this way. I feel like Iger pushed the company to the brink in a number of areas. Chapek came in, shoved it over the edge, climbed down to its broken body and then defecated on it all while telling us how great things were.

 

[TalkingHead]

He grew a fashionable beard for the first time and tried getting into the NFT digital clothing space.

With that kind of creative acumen no wonder his company’s output is spinning tires in a ditch.

 

[Tha Realest]

I somewhat disagree in that it depends on which issue you are talking about. That is what determines who gets how much blame for me.

Personally, I feel that the overall direction of a company is too complex to just say good/bad, at least if we want any real insight or analysis of the why. That is where I find it helpful to break out the various factors that drive the overall direction. When we do that, I think most of us see that Iger had lots of issues, but the company as a whole did much better under him than Chapek. Further, it is easy to see where Chapek created plenty of his own problems that had nothing to do with Iger. Just for example...

- The Florida situation leading to the end of Reedy Creek? 100% Chapek. Iger had nothing to do with that.
- Brain drain/talent loss? 100% Chapek. No matter what we think of him, creatives tend to like Iger outside of his IP mandate while they hated Chapek.
- Lack of any development or even plans for development of any of the parks while in charge? 100% Chapek.
- Putting a municipal hospital architect in charge of what remained of the corpse of Imagineering? 100% Chapek.
- Decision to reorg the company and place streaming ahead of all other entertainment despite all the people he consulted on it telling him it wouldn't go well? 100% Chapek.
- Trying to tell us that Halloween after parties were awesome while ignoring a devastatingly bad earnings miss? 100% Chapek.
- Going DIRECTLY against the board on multiple occasions, many of them after agreeing with them in meetings? 100% Chapek.

Now of course Iger should and does take the blame for giving us Chapek to begin with and if someone wants to make an argument Disney was already heading in the toilet before Chapek, that is fine, there is certainly evidence people can point to that would support that, but there is also plenty of evidence on how much the pace accelerated under Chapek and he created all new issues and emergencies for the company all on his own.

Let me put it this way. I feel like Iger pushed the company to the brink in a number of areas. Chapek came in, shoved it over the edge, climbed down to its broken body and then defecated on it all while telling us how great things were.

The “Florida situation” likely would never have occurred if they stuck to Chapek and Morrell’s original plan.

 

[Dranth]

The “Florida situation” likely would never have occurred if they stuck to Chapek and Morrell’s original plan.

I disagree and feel it is a little unrealistic to suggest he could have gotten away with doing nothing. Too much noise was coming internally and externally on the matter by the time they finally issued a statement. Signing the petition, like 100s of other companies did, would have provided cover to stop internal tensions, put out a position so the media could move on and likely ended it right then and there. Chapek chose otherwise.

I don't blame him for trying to stay out of it and I also don't blame him for finally jumping back in, he had to. Where I do fault him is not having a better understanding of politics, his company or its history. End of the day, the nuclear option was all him despite sitting in a meeting with the board and them all agreeing he would just sign the petition weeks before.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

The “Florida situation” likely would never have occurred if they stuck to Chapek and Morrell’s original plan.

It will be interesting to see how history remembers Chapek, if it even does.

He was thrown into the CEO role at the worst possible time, they had just bought Fox and put the company tens of billions in debt, they had just launched D+ which was losing billions more, the pandemic quickly shut down the world and cost them tens of billions in park income… it was the perfect storm for failure, then on top of that FL passed some controversial legislation and he was instantly faced with internal revolt while he was still trying to establish himself as the new CEO, while still reporting to Iger.

I’ll never be a fan of Chapek due to all the horrible parks decisions he made but I don’t think anyone could have succeeded in his position. He was thrown to the wolves, it would have been amazing had he not failed.

I think he ends up a footnote but I also think history will be kinder to him than it will be to Iger.

ETA… Dranth is also correct, had he simply signed the letter, like he said he would, he probably could have avoided that drama and had one less catastrophe to deal with.

 

[Ayla]

I disagree and feel it is a little unrealistic to suggest he could have gotten away with doing nothing. Too much noise was coming internally and externally on the matter by the time they finally issued a statement. Signing the petition, like 100s of other companies did, would have provided cover to stop internal tensions, put out a position so the media could move on and likely ended it right then and there. Chapek chose otherwise.

I don't blame him for trying to stay out of it and I also don't blame him for finally jumping back in, he had to. Where I do fault him is not having a better understanding of politics, his company or its history. End of the day, the nuclear option was all him despite sitting in a meeting with the board and them all agreeing he would just sign the petition weeks before.

Totally blaming Chapek in that situation is not fair (though I believe he was a disaster in pretty much everything else). You can't discount the FL government's role in it.

 

[Dranth]

Totally blaming Chapek in that situation is not fair (though I believe he was a disaster in pretty much everything else). You can't discount the FL government's role in it.

True, the over reaction, political stunt from Florida is not excused in anyway by the choices Chapek made and the state was 100000000% in the wrong to me.

Having said that, it doesn't change that he had the opportunity to take a safe route with lots of cover for his company. He was told to go that route from the board of the directors. He agreed to go that route with them in person and then changed his mind, didn't tell them he changed his mind, and went out on his own with a position he HAD to know would attract more attention. Even if many of us feel it was the right position to take and it was unrealistic for anyone to expect just how far the state would end up going, as a CEO of a public company, you can't go further than you can get the board to support and except to keep your job.

 

[Magic Crush Drop]

It will be interesting to see how history remembers Chapek, if it even does.

High than Post Walt-Pre Eisner CEOs but lower than Iger. Maybe on Roy O. level?

I think he ends up a footnote but I also think history will be kinder to him than it will be to Iger.

I think he will have something written about his time (DisneyWar pt2) and a couple tik toks about the wild actions he did by some creator that barely remember that time and confuses him with Iger 2.0.

 

[BrianLo]

I somewhat disagree in that it depends on which issue you are talking about. That is what determines who gets how much blame for me.

Personally, I feel that the overall direction of a company is too complex to just say good/bad, at least if we want any real insight or analysis of the why. That is where I find it helpful to break out the various factors that drive the overall direction. When we do that, I think most of us see that Iger had lots of issues, but the company as a whole did much better under him than Chapek. Further, it is easy to see where Chapek created plenty of his own problems that had nothing to do with Iger. Just for example...

- The Florida situation leading to the end of Reedy Creek? 100% Chapek. Iger had nothing to do with that.
- Brain drain/talent loss? 100% Chapek. No matter what we think of him, creatives tend to like Iger outside of his IP mandate while they hated Chapek.
- Lack of any development or even plans for development of any of the parks while in charge? 100% Chapek.
- Putting a municipal hospital architect in charge of what remained of the corpse of Imagineering? 100% Chapek.
- Decision to reorg the company and place streaming ahead of all other entertainment despite all the people he consulted on it telling him it wouldn't go well? 100% Chapek.
- Trying to tell us that Halloween after parties were awesome while ignoring a devastatingly bad earnings miss? 100% Chapek.
- Going DIRECTLY against the board on multiple occasions, many of them after agreeing with them in meetings? 100% Chapek.

Now of course Iger should and does take the blame for giving us Chapek to begin with and if someone wants to make an argument Disney was already heading in the toilet before Chapek, that is fine, there is certainly evidence people can point to that would support that, but there is also plenty of evidence on how much the pace accelerated under Chapek and he created all new issues and emergencies for the company all on his own.

Let me put it this way. I feel like Iger pushed the company to the brink in a number of areas. Chapek came in, shoved it over the edge, climbed down to its broken body and then defecated on it all while telling us how great things were.

The other two bad decisions, in hindsight, on how the men differed:

-Chapek was chasing empty subscriber numbers. There is well documented conflict between to the two of this. It led to the stock pumping and eventual slump. Along with the write off in Indian operations. This issue is most directly what got him fired and invited corporate raiders through the door.

-Shoveling content to DTC. Iger has always been a less is more tentpole strategy. A bit more theatrically focused. It didn’t seem like a bad idea in the midst of the Pandemic, but theatrical earnings were clearly left on the table in hindsight.


Now that said, In the sake of being celebratory of Chapek; I really don’t think Iger would have purchased the Genting Dream. Considering how much money is in cruising right now, getting a mega vessel on a major discount was a correct long play.

 

[NotCalledBob]

Bob is at the Emmys this evening. I just saw him.

 

[JoeCamel]

Bob is at the Emmys this evening. I just saw him.

Did he smell like booze?

 

[Tha Realest]

Bob is at the Emmys this evening. I just saw him.

Of course. That’s his lifeblood. He never misses that.

When was the last time he was at the IAAPAs?

 

[NotCalledBob]

Of course. That’s his lifeblood. He never misses that.

When was the last time he was at the IAAPAs?

I've not managed to see who he is with yet. Be interesting to see if he brought Josh.

 

[JoeCamel]

I've not managed to see who he is with yet. Be interesting to see if he brought Josh.

They aren't giving him an award are they??

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Bob is at the Emmys this evening. I just saw him.

Those private jets come in handy, he was at the Sphere last night watching the UFC, in a private suite of course.

 

[NotCalledBob]

He is with Dana and Alan

 

[NotCalledBob]

And I'm on TV. Oh dear.

 

[NotCalledBob]

We won an Emmy. I most definitely shouldn't say that, but it's so much fun I had to share! Woo!