Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
You’re too trusting Who did this to you ???? Was it Bob!? Did he hurt you!!!!???
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News Bob Iger Steps Down - Bob Chapek CEO
- Thread starter Disney Analyst
- Start date
You’re too trusting Who did this to you ???? Was it Bob!? Did he hurt you!!!!???
YES!!! <sobbing> That's why he had to step down! I wanted him gone completely, but $300 million dollars convinced me otherwise. Can't say too much more because of the NDA and the giant mouse in my backyard.
Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
In all seriousness. You’re probably right. Billionaire CEOs, in charge of one of the biggest companies in the world, who suddenly quit mid contract, out of nowhere, without even telling their senior executives first rarely have anything to hide.
D
Deleted member 107043
Except he hasn't quit CC. He's there for like another year and a half.
Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
Yeah being “creative”.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
Yeah being “creative”.
But yet he's still at the company, indicating once again that it wasn't a scandal. If it was he wouldn't still be leading the board of one of the largest media conglomerates on the planet.
Basically think of this as a long transition period, that is all. That is why he is still there and not actually retired. Hand over the day-to-day to Chapek, allow him to handle things on this own and fall back to Iger if needed. And if at the end of 2021 things aren't where Iger things the company should be he steps back in as CEO and assumes control again. Period end of story, no scandal, no conspiracy.
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Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
It could be something not even necessarily criminal, but something that wouldn’t be a favorable quality to have in a family company’s CEO. But at the same time, they have no one viable to trust in running the company. So they think, let’s go with out only option, and downgrade Bob to basically be Bob Jr’s trainer. After the initial hubbub, the spotlight is off of Bob and on Jr. so hopefully whatever it is (and my imagination is really going wild here) never comes to light. Otherwise, why on earth do this at one of the worst times possible, when stocks are already losing value and virus scare threatens to do even more damage. Why do this without telling senior execs ahead of time? It’s not a certainty that something is amiss, but there is certainly enough there to cause warranted suspicion.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
No, I don't think Iger did anything directly and/or of a criminal nature. My only thought was that he might have knowledge of impropriety or criminal behavior related to the #MeToo movement that happened in the past and was related to various Disney divisions and/or senior leadership at Disney.
I'm of the opinion that everyone in power in Hollywood is guilty by association with the #MeToo thing; you can't convince me they didn't all know that creeps like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein and many others existed and that they knew what kind of games they played. Bob Iger knew. Everyone knew. And no one did anything about it, for decades.
I don't think Bob Iger did anything himself, I just don't get that vibe from him, but I'm confident he knew exactly how the slimy rotten town worked and how his industry counterparts behaved in the 1980's, and 90's, and 2000's and most of the 2010's. Bob Iger knew. They all knew.
Very true. Again, I don't think Bob Iger did anything criminal himself.
But something triggered his sudden and unplanned departure from the Company, with no planned replacement for Bob Chapek's very important division, right as his company and the entire industry was crashing into its worst crisis since World War II. It's just weird, and I firmly believe there is more to the story that we don't know about, other than a sudden realization that Mr. Iger just wanted to play more tennis.
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Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
He’s still there...but he doesn’t hold his position for a reason...a little timeline:
Feb 14: Dow closes at 29,388
DIS 139.00 a share
Feb 24: Dow closes at 27,960
DIS $133.00 a share
Feb 25: Iger announced retirement out of the stratospher at exactly 4:05 EST
March 13: Dow: 23,185
DIS $ 102.50 a share
(March 12 it shrank down to $89 a share...stay tuned for next week)
Now...I’m not sure what the textbook definition of “conspiracy theory” is...but don’t you usually have to make one without graphs and charts?
The point is that bob of course knew what was coming and did his HALO jump...not a conspiracy. Good for him to outsmart his own board and chappie (not too tough) and get a new emeritus position to puppet string from. He scored the winning TD and drove off with the prom queen.
But it wasn’t Hollywood espionage from the Weinstein school of Shenanigans
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Disney Irish
Premium Member
Honestly, and this is my opinion, they just said why not. They already knew the stock is going to be hit by COVID-19 scares, so why not pull the trigger and get the transition rolling. Plus I have a feeling that the Fox merger is way ahead of their internal targets. So instead of announcing it ahead of time and making it a long drawn out thing just make it an on the job transition. This is not an unusual thing in Fortune 500 companies. Maybe its unprecedented at Disney, but so is everything else until it happens and then its no longer unprecedented.
Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
It makes no sense to have not given any warning or a heads up to anyone else in the company beforehand.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
It actually does...I laid it out for you.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
I don't think he outsmarted anyone, let alone the Board as they needed to approve it before the announcement. I honestly believe they had this plan prior to COVID-19 and just went ahead with the transition when the writing was on the wall.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Possibly...but even if they knew they rolled over. Crappy succession plan - one would think allowing him to go - not that they could stop him - caused more stock bleed these past few weeks
I just want everyone to be clear: he vacated his title for his payout. It’s good work if you can get it.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
Why does there have to be a long drawn out succession plan? Other Fortune 500 companies don't always announce long drawn out succession plans, so why does Disney? The only reason why its a question now is because this has never been done before at Disney. But as I said before something is only unprecedented because it hasn't been done before, once its done its no longer unprecedented.
As for your assumption the stock bleed is anything other than COVID-19, its just that an assumption. We won't really know Chapek's impact on the stock until this COVID-19 fallout is over. By then I expect Disney stock and the stock market as a whole to have recovered, however long that takes.
Also he was going to get payed out no matter whether he left on Feb 25th 2020 or Dec 31st 2021. Plus if you don't think he took a personal financial hit when the stock took a nosedive due to COVID-19 then you don't know how CEOs are paid or how their retirement packages work.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Lack of succession plan was the single biggest reason Roy E went after Eisner in the end.
Chapek is not up to this...come on - who are we kidding? I think that’s why Iger is around and it’s a probie deal. I bet the money deal when disclosed will be shockingly low as well
After the whole rasulo/staggs nonsense...I think Iger just kinda gave up and took whoever was left. He didn’t appear to want a strong successor and now we see why.
We’ll watch and see...I see them bringing in an outsider in a year or two...just a hunch.
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Imagine if Iger didn't step down. With his retirement looming, there'd be rampant speculation about who will replace him. The CV19 would put people into overdrive about whether he will step down or not in order to deal with the crisis. If he didn't, they'd wail about what a liar he is and how he craves power and bonuses. If he did step down, he'd be lambasted for cowardly abandoning a company in crisis.
No matter what Iger and the board did for the transition, the Iger haters would spin it as something sinister.
They're already doing so with zero evidence and this damnable whispering campaign. And I mean that in the religious sense.
No matter what Iger and the board did for the transition, the Iger haters would spin it as something sinister.
They're already doing so with zero evidence and this damnable whispering campaign. And I mean that in the religious sense.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
There are positives as you’ve mentioned...but as always it went to snit.
Transition before the collapse helped in some ways...for sure. But Iger did bail out. I think that’s ok to say...and understandable.
I don’t thing it’s due to some scandalous Hollywood scheme or abuse...he just knew what was happening in China due to their bad - If fortuitous - partnerships and acted accordingly. Sure seems like he was right too.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
This isn't some TV drama, and this isn't the same era as the Roy/Eisner fight with Save Disney. The company is in a much better place than back then. Its on solid financial footing, something that couldn't be said in the later Eisner years.
And I don't think its some hidden secret that Iger is using this time until his official retirement date as a way to have a long transition period. I've even said as much in many other posts. This is basically an on the job transition where Chapek over sees the day-to-day. And then Iger does what he does with the board and whatever creative project he wants to work on, while still being there for questions or to step in if needed to take over if Chapek fails.
Iger's compensation package was a small base salary and then all stock incentives based on company performance, his retirement package is pretty much the same, small severance with an all stock award tied to company performance with x amount of time to wait before he can sell any stock. Basically a standard CEO retirement package, to prevent just taking the money and running. This is why its not as you state, that he jumped ship for his retirement package. Because any "golden parachute" that you think he has basically just became a "bronze paper weight" when the stock took a hit due to COVID-19. All his money is pretty much tied up in Disney stock. So he has a financial incentive to make sure the company stays flying as high as possible. After all he is still one of Disney's largest single stock holder. So again this idea that you have that he just cut and ran when COVID-19 hit because he got some big payout is a false narrative.
Its amazing what you can learn if you read the 8K filings.
And then its the same with Chapek, small base salary and then all stock incentive based on company performance.
As for Rasulo and Staggs, as I understand it the board didn't like either of them for the CEO job. Probably many reasons for that, but overall if the board doesn't approve the candidates, Iger can't just appoint them anyways. So no matter what it wasn't like the job was Rasulo or Staggs for the taking and Iger just ripped it away from them because he decided to stay. He stayed because the board didn't have confidence in either of the two candidates the public thought were the front runners.
I doubt an insider would be brought in at this point, just a feeling. There are still plenty of candidates inside the company that can be tapped first before having to go outside. Plus they could have gone outsider anytime in the last couple years if that is really what they wanted. So no I think they stick with an inside candidate.
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Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Igers parachute was estimated at a half billion when he announced stepping down from ceo...which is the title it was written for. You know that retirement packages are basically guaranteed for all big-time CEOs...and Iger had complete leverage based on performance to have that privilege as well as an escape clause. He would have had to have the dumbest lawyer on earth for that not to be the case.
I’m waiting to see what details emerge. You are probably making this more complicated when it’s pretty simple.
I did see he barely...and just barely...had last years compensation approved by the board the other day. Good times for Bob.