Ironic that Chapek talked about layoffs and it started with himself.
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News Bob Iger is back! Chapek is out!!
- Thread starter Disney4family
- Start date
ctrlaltdel
Well-Known Member
While investors like optimizing money makers, they certainly need to see some large future investments as well to get excited about. Otherwise you live and die only on the quarterly results. Chapek clearly died with that last quarterly report. I think that ultimately the Board/investors saw there was nothing Chapek was looking at as a long-term strategy, just cost-cutting and price gouging to the limit on Disney's current big money maker: parks. But there is nothing in the pipeline there, nothing to keep investors engaged, it's all wait patiently for a few years before Disney+ supposedly turns a profit. Very perilous way to run a company whose main competitor in their actual moneymaking industry is seeing record profits and a massive theme park on the way.
With weakening demand in the parks evident and streaming's stock boost no longer a premium it was time to quickly cut the cord. Streaming-wise, Disney is in a solid position with the amount of subs, but they desperately need price increases (on the way) and cutting back content costs/shifting movies back to theatrical.
It's completely obvious, but Iger is miles better at the actual back room dealing than Chapek and is completely willing to make splashy purchases/investments to build excitement among investors. Think his priorities are likely:
1. Try to get theatrical/streaming mix back on track. The mix is off, and it is clear that too many movies that could be decent hits theatrically are going straight to D+, which has very little value add compared to a TV show.
2. Do everything he can to use his connections to get China back in the fold and repair that relationship.
3. Appease the parks fans with some rollbacks of Chapek-era initiatives (convinced the actual moneymaking stuff won't be cut like Genie, but park reservations will be axed, park hopping anytime will be reinstated, etc.) and announcing some big investments there to generate excitement both among fans and investors.
4. Look for another big potential purchase, could be another studio/streamer.
With weakening demand in the parks evident and streaming's stock boost no longer a premium it was time to quickly cut the cord. Streaming-wise, Disney is in a solid position with the amount of subs, but they desperately need price increases (on the way) and cutting back content costs/shifting movies back to theatrical.
It's completely obvious, but Iger is miles better at the actual back room dealing than Chapek and is completely willing to make splashy purchases/investments to build excitement among investors. Think his priorities are likely:
1. Try to get theatrical/streaming mix back on track. The mix is off, and it is clear that too many movies that could be decent hits theatrically are going straight to D+, which has very little value add compared to a TV show.
2. Do everything he can to use his connections to get China back in the fold and repair that relationship.
3. Appease the parks fans with some rollbacks of Chapek-era initiatives (convinced the actual moneymaking stuff won't be cut like Genie, but park reservations will be axed, park hopping anytime will be reinstated, etc.) and announcing some big investments there to generate excitement both among fans and investors.
4. Look for another big potential purchase, could be another studio/streamer.
If that were the case, they would have silenced Chapek and reduced his exposure weeks if not months ago.
This happened very quickly (for a company that moves as glacially as Disney this may have given some whiplash), I think the Q4 earnings fiasco was the lynch pin to trigger the change.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
"In an unexpected turn of events Disney accidently tries to acquire itself."
GhostHost1000
Premium Member
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
They totally overpaid."In an unexpected turn of events Disney accidently tries to acquire itself."
I'm curious what's in his golden parachute he bailed out in. More money than some can imagine.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
$23 million.
durangojim
Well-Known Member
So do any of the trades have the behind the scenes story yet on how this all went down? Also will Iger be brining his team back like Zenia Mucha?
Communicora
Premium Member
ctrlaltdel
Well-Known Member
CNBC said that Chapek was only informed last night (presumably time enough to craft a statement on his exit) and that Iger was reached out to on Friday. Incredibly quick but this was clearly brewing with the Board for some time.
flynnibus
Premium Member
That's not what the reports are saying today... they are saying it started FRIDAY
I'm surprised that the exit package he received was lower than I thought . He can rest and relax in his $12.5M house he bought last year to plan his next move.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
I actually don’t hate the ideal of him coming back as a consultant like Roy…IF its temporary as is being reported
DCLcruiser
Well-Known Member
This probably was a quick decision. You can't keep this secret for months. There's not much to negotiate, he wasn't CEO of another public company.
Originally, D+ was going to be for the niche family market. Then D+ blew through its four year projection in one month. Both Bobs were astounded that over half of the D+ subbers were households without children.
And so, they pivoted. D+ wasn't going to be a 2 quadrant streamer, but a 4 quadrant. So, they started to put more mature content on D+. Added a child lock. Decided to eventually merge D+ with Hulu rather than have them go after different markets.
This made them adjust their goal to be one of the big streamers after the streaming wars were over.
And those who were subbed to D+ were telling them in surveys that they wanted more "general audience" (i.e. 'adult') content.
So, D+ (along with the eventual Hulu merger) will be a 4 quadrant streamer.
Recommending them to double down on going back to being a niche market streamer is crazy.
Funny thing is that She-Hulk get pretty good ratings from critics. But general audience (self-selecting at RT and IMDB) give it a 44%.
It's almost as if half the population couldn't get on board.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
He’s more personable for sure.
Why does he not shoot the critters? Legitimately what suppressed 22LR is for.