Eisner says Disney's sky isn't falling
Commentary: But 'DisneyWar' puts pressure on the CEO
By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- My favorite moment during the Walt Disney Co. annual shareholder meeting occurred when the company's top executives started touting "Chicken Little," an upcoming Disney animated feature.
In retrospect, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Disney (DIS: news, chart, profile) Chief Executive Michael Eisner's favorite part of the two-hour session as well. Perhaps the irony wasn't lost on him, either.
In Eisner's world, the doomsayer Chicken Little has been played by the dissident shareholder and former board member, Roy Disney (He is also the nephew of the legendary founder Walt Disney).
Roy Disney has been running around Burbank, Calif., where Disney is based, Wall Street and everywhere else for more than a year, shrieking that Disney's stockholders are getting a raw deal from Eisner. He has blasted Eisner's management record and blamed him for everything but starting the Great Chicago Fire.
Roy's campaign helped force Eisner into a corner. Last year, at the company's 2004 shareholder meeting in Philadelphia, the shareholders showed so little confidence in Eisner that he took the hint. Eisner relinquished the cherished title of chairman, which he had held for two decades since arriving at the Magic Kingdom.
Wishing upon a star
But on stage Friday in Minneapolis at the 2005 annual meeting, Eisner sounded renewed.
As I listened to the Webcast, I could envision him bounding around the stage as he happily recited the company's accomplishments.
Eisner emphatically pointed out, for example, that the company's earnings and stock price had surged since last year's Philadelphia fiasco. He did everything but break out in a chorus of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing."
No wonder Eisner was sticking his chest out. Disney's holdings are on solid ground. ESPN is doing phenomenally. For the first time in many years, Eisner can even brag that ABC, long a black hole for Disney, is on a roll. ABC has hit it big with the most talked-about new show and greatest hit of the season -- "Desperate Housewives" -- and the popular "Lost."
With so many things going right, you couldn't blame Eisner if he had an urge to thumb his nose at his nemesis, Roy Disney.
Eisner could shrug off complaints that Disney's stock price had lagged the results of other large-cap stocks over the years. Critics carped that Eisner's acquisitions, especially the Capital Cities/ABC deal, were questionable at best.
But survival has been the name of Eisner's game for the past 20 years. Few CEOs are as resourceful. He remained the Teflon CEO, even when his executive partnerships with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Ovitz fizzled and ended up costing Disney hundreds of millions of dollars.
Goofy
Still, I have a quibble with Eisner myself.
This year, Disney brought its annual meeting to Minneapolis. In 2001, Disney held the meeting in Dallas. Then it was on to Hartford in 2002, Denver in 2003 (during a blizzard, no less) and Philadelphia a year ago. It seems to have a disdain for the largest city in the United States.
As for Eisner, his task gets ever-more complicated because of the explosive new book "DisneyWar" by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart.
Stewart takes apart Eisner's record, not only deal by deal and controversy by controversy, but basically memo by memo.
Simon & Schuster, the publisher of "DisneyWar," has moved up the publication date of Stewart's book. The company, a unit of Viacom (VIAB: news, chart, profile) , wants to cash in on the buzz that the book is beginning to garner.
Eisner, really, has one task. He has to find a way to convince everyone, all over again, that, no matter what appears in "DisneyWar," the sky isn't falling.
Commentary: But 'DisneyWar' puts pressure on the CEO
By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- My favorite moment during the Walt Disney Co. annual shareholder meeting occurred when the company's top executives started touting "Chicken Little," an upcoming Disney animated feature.
In retrospect, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Disney (DIS: news, chart, profile) Chief Executive Michael Eisner's favorite part of the two-hour session as well. Perhaps the irony wasn't lost on him, either.
In Eisner's world, the doomsayer Chicken Little has been played by the dissident shareholder and former board member, Roy Disney (He is also the nephew of the legendary founder Walt Disney).
Roy Disney has been running around Burbank, Calif., where Disney is based, Wall Street and everywhere else for more than a year, shrieking that Disney's stockholders are getting a raw deal from Eisner. He has blasted Eisner's management record and blamed him for everything but starting the Great Chicago Fire.
Roy's campaign helped force Eisner into a corner. Last year, at the company's 2004 shareholder meeting in Philadelphia, the shareholders showed so little confidence in Eisner that he took the hint. Eisner relinquished the cherished title of chairman, which he had held for two decades since arriving at the Magic Kingdom.
Wishing upon a star
But on stage Friday in Minneapolis at the 2005 annual meeting, Eisner sounded renewed.
As I listened to the Webcast, I could envision him bounding around the stage as he happily recited the company's accomplishments.
Eisner emphatically pointed out, for example, that the company's earnings and stock price had surged since last year's Philadelphia fiasco. He did everything but break out in a chorus of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing."
No wonder Eisner was sticking his chest out. Disney's holdings are on solid ground. ESPN is doing phenomenally. For the first time in many years, Eisner can even brag that ABC, long a black hole for Disney, is on a roll. ABC has hit it big with the most talked-about new show and greatest hit of the season -- "Desperate Housewives" -- and the popular "Lost."
With so many things going right, you couldn't blame Eisner if he had an urge to thumb his nose at his nemesis, Roy Disney.
Eisner could shrug off complaints that Disney's stock price had lagged the results of other large-cap stocks over the years. Critics carped that Eisner's acquisitions, especially the Capital Cities/ABC deal, were questionable at best.
But survival has been the name of Eisner's game for the past 20 years. Few CEOs are as resourceful. He remained the Teflon CEO, even when his executive partnerships with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Ovitz fizzled and ended up costing Disney hundreds of millions of dollars.
Goofy
Still, I have a quibble with Eisner myself.
This year, Disney brought its annual meeting to Minneapolis. In 2001, Disney held the meeting in Dallas. Then it was on to Hartford in 2002, Denver in 2003 (during a blizzard, no less) and Philadelphia a year ago. It seems to have a disdain for the largest city in the United States.
As for Eisner, his task gets ever-more complicated because of the explosive new book "DisneyWar" by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart.
Stewart takes apart Eisner's record, not only deal by deal and controversy by controversy, but basically memo by memo.
Simon & Schuster, the publisher of "DisneyWar," has moved up the publication date of Stewart's book. The company, a unit of Viacom (VIAB: news, chart, profile) , wants to cash in on the buzz that the book is beginning to garner.
Eisner, really, has one task. He has to find a way to convince everyone, all over again, that, no matter what appears in "DisneyWar," the sky isn't falling.
