Thats total baloney. Just about every acquisition Iger has made will pan out long term and grow the company dramatically. The man is building theme parks while the late to the party competition is building themed areas. Disney films are getting to the point of being constant hits almost every time out. The brand has never been stronger, even when Walt was around he was never this successful.
Short term? Ha, ha. Did I mention the company under his watch has grown in value from just under 50 billion to 150 billion? You guys can hate the man all you want, its pointless and without merit, but hes the best CEO in America for a reason. He deserves his success.
I have to agree with you. Not that I'm an Iger cheerleader or anything like that, but he's done quite a bit for the company in his time.
Granted, he hasn't done the kind of building and massive park expansions at WDW and across the world as Eisner did, but consider also, that he hasn't been in charge as long as Eisner was, but he's done a lot from a profitability standpoint, which is no doubt why they've decided to keep him.
Michael Eisner had over 20 years at the helm, from 1984 until 2004/5. Bob Iger was only appointed in 2005 as CEO, but during his short time, he's done some MAJOR things that should be recognized.
Most notably I think, he restored the relationship with Pixar, bought the company partnering with Steve Jobs, and bringing John Lasseter on board to help restore animation and imagineering. Michael Eisner, in his greedy dictatorship tried to milk Pixar for every single dime, and ultimately pushed them to the point of where they were looking for another studio to distribute their films. Bob was able to talk to them and form a new, very equitable and successful relationship that's paid off hugely for both companies.
He also bought Marvel, which was a huge deal financially, and will continue to have pay offs for many years to come.
I should also mention the mega deal he made with George Lucas, that will undoubtedly have equally, if not a bigger payoff.
Also of note, he bought back the Disney Stores from Children's place. This was another of Eisner's disastrous decisions, that luckily Iger had the intelligence to see that it just made sense for Disney to own the stores branded with
their own name.
So, while he hasn't been as extravagant as Michael Eisner was in his term, Bob has had a few hits in his short term. If nothing else, I think Iger should be remembered for fixing some of the mistakes of the Eisner era.
