
Disney CEO Bob Iger immediately steps down from CEO position - smaili
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/25/disney-ceo-bob-iger-immediately-steps-down-from-ceo-position/
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madrox
As a former Disney employee and someone who's kept up with internal politics,
even though his contract was up at the end of next year this feels sudden and
not in line with how Disney tends to do things. Disney has quite a number of
disparate businesses, from theme parks to streaming services to movies. Chapek
is a business guy that has done consumer products and parks (parts of the
business that aren't huge growth areas), and hasn't even been president of
parks for that long. He has no experience on the creative side. Usually the
future CEO is appointed to a COO/President role in order to help them learn
the parts of the business they don't have experience in. It also helps vet if
they'll be capable of leading all those business heads, which is how they
determined not to go with Tom Staggs after he was made COO. Not doing this is
pretty irregular, especially with all the shakeup that occurred with Fox.
They're still working through a lot of that.

Similarly, I don't buy the story that Iger is moving into a creative
leadership role. It's true there's been a vacuum there since Lasseter left,
but unless there's long term tenure planned, Iger won't be very influential.
Anyone who's worked at a large company knows that no one listens to the guy
whose only responsibility is to have creative ideas if they have no other real
responsibility and will be out in a few months. Iger put himself into a
meaningless, insignificant role, and no one has satisfactorily explained why.

I don't think there's a scandal. If there was, the narrative around his
departure would be different and he wouldn't be sticking out to the end of his
contract. He wouldn't still be chairman of the board. I've heard a rumor the
board is upset about Star Wars, but Q1 2020 was pretty solid and Mandalorian
was well received. I'm actually worried he's sick, though I hope not because I
admire him a lot. Regardless, I do feel like there's another shoe. I guess
we'll have to wait to find out what it is.

~~~
aerovistae
Why would the board be upset about star wars?

~~~
irrational
The first movie I remember ever seeing was the first star wars movie at a
drive-in when I was 5 years old. I love the Star Wars movies. But, I haven't
even bothered to see the one that came out this past December. I'm not even
sure of it's name. I was severely underwhelmed by the previous ones in the
most recent trilogy. They weren't as bad as the prequels, but bad enough that
I honestly don't care whether I see the most recent one or not.

~~~
trustfundbaby
My exact sentiments. When Disney Plus came out, I actually attempted to watch
the entire star wars lineup from start to finish, the prequels (episodes 4-6)
were unwatchable, couldn't even get through those, but watching (more like
sitting through) the last 2 reminded me of exactly why I wouldn't be seeing
the latest one ...

~~~
zacharycohn
The Prequels were episodes 1-3. The Original Trilogy was episodes 4-6.

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primordialsoup
I read "ride of a lifetime" by Bob Iger last month. It was a pretty nice book,
similar to ShoeDog by Phil Knight. I learnt a lot about leadership, about Bob
himself and started to like him (even though I had no idea about him before
the book).

A few things that stuck with me: 1\. Have three priorities or less. Otherwise
people can't relate. Jim Collins also said: "If you have more than three
priorities, you don't have any". 2\. He did everything to show that he cared
about what his people were doing. He would take part in many aspects of the
star wars movie (and be there). This sent a message, a good one. 3\. Earning
trust is important. He did Pixar acquisition well. That earned the trust of
Marvel CEO.

I recommend checking that book out.

~~~
dylanz
I'm halfway into that audio book (which is self-narrated) and so far it's been
great. Point #2 is definitely a theme. He seemed to truly care about what
impact his actions would have on his employees and consumers.

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gkoberger
I just finished his book last night (it's a really good read), and this feels
weird to me. It was clear he was going to leave soon, but why now?

He talked so much about succession plans and outward appearances (like, that
was most of the book, honestly...), and this feels so weird that out of
nowhere Bob Chapek became CEO. He doesn't seem (at the surface) to represent
what Iger does, and there was no clear succession plan or public narrative put
forward. (Like, really, the whole book was about 50 years of succession plans
and presenting things in a way that wouldn't cause issues externally... and
this was the opposite of that.)

I also remember thinking how poor Eisner's legacy came off in his book, and
was sure he'd optimize for a great legacy. He is ending his tenure on a
relatively high note for the company, but something about the exact timing
feels really off to me. Especially right after such a huge press tour for
himself.

I don't think it's a scandal; he wouldn't stick around. The only thing I can
think of is a political run (maybe not for president? Seems too late for that,
and he seems to smart to run for something he can't win), or possibly family
issues (sickness, etc).

~~~
texasbigdata
He also has been on every TV show and podcast he could be recently.

Like it's as if he calendared retiring and he is executing on post retirement
plans (book and publicity) without stepping down.

If he's checked out and not working...and the next guy is identified and in
waiting....it's reasonable the board would boot him early.

Heck in his own book while Bob was waiting to be CEO he approached Goldman to
do the Pixar deal. Which is super....well.....forward looking / potentially
undermining to the current CEO. Maybe history repeats.

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adaisadais
This is pretty shocking to me. I literally just got my shareholder information
in the mail.

When I bought Disney stock it was a 20th century management style company. Now
it's one of my best Blue Chips. Bob Iger's leadership has helped make Disney
into the media behemoth we now pretty much can't escape whenever we turn on
the tv or check the news.

I only hope that there are no scandals that are the cause of his move from CEO
to Executive Chairman.

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onefuncman
Weird, techcrunch.com is serving an expired SSL certificate.

    
    
        $ openssl s_client -showcerts -servername techcrunch.com -connect techcrunch.com:443
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        notAfter=Feb 26 12:00:00 2020 GMT

~~~
mirages
Same here : [https://crt.sh/?id=2500908236](https://crt.sh/?id=2500908236)

12h long certificate

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jshevek
"Speculation is still high for the exact reason behind Iger’s departure, with
many hoping for something benign (ish) like a presidential run versus a
personal issue."

This country seems desperate for the hope of better leadership.

~~~
tedajax
Wish they'd stop looking to CEOs then.

~~~
hlmencken
Unless leadership skills have any overlap in the private and public space.

~~~
bsder
They don't.

CEO's don't have to build consensus. They can, and do, purge their ranks of
dissidents. Iger, in particular, has been aggressive about this over time.

You cannot simply "fire" the people who disagree with you when you are
President. We have seen what happens when you try to do that.

~~~
gwright
Of course the President can fire the people who disagree with him. In fact he
should do that if the people are preventing the implementation of the
President's lawful policies. The Constitution is pretty darn clear on this
point:

Article 2. Section 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of
the United States of America.

Of course it is also possible for a President to make poor decisions, but the
trend towards criminalizing policy differences is not a healthy one. Elections
are the solution to poor executive decisions, which is _NOT_ the same thing as
unlawful actions.

~~~
saagarjha
> In fact he should do that if the people are preventing the implementation of
> the President's lawful policies.

I believe the unwritten assumption was that the president was firing people
who disagreed with him when he made unlawful policies.

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jb775
Probably just taking advantage of the massive market downswing
yesterday/today. They know the Disney stock price is going to tank in the
short term along with the rest of the market, might as well rip off the band-
aid of Iger leaving while people are already selling.

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SiFiPi
Is it possible that he believes that the markets will take a hit in the near
future with the virus scares these last two days?

If I were CEO of a behemoth giant like Disney and held the credit for its
rising in several industries, I'd bounce ship before it all went down to avoid
any blame?

Maybe I'm naive, but this thought crossed my mind.

~~~
jcranmer
COVID-2019 is going to hit everybody more or less to the same degree. The only
people who are going to be significantly damaged by it are those who bet
everything on doing good in 2020 (which is still more likely to be seen as bad
luck than poor skill), or those who manage to absolutely screw the handling
up.

~~~
LatteLazy
Disney will likely gain from it: what better time to be selling digital
subscription services than when everyone is locked up in their houses and
schools are closing?

~~~
jcranmer
Given that a lot of people who would be interested in Disney's subscription
service probably already have it, I don't think there's likely to be a major
increase in subscriptions due to coronavirus-induced shutdowns.

People cancelling their trips to Disney parks and cruises will likely hurt
them a lot. If people start cancelling spring break en masse, or this lasts
long enough to affect the summer season, the lost ticket sales will be
painful.

~~~
nojvek
Disney parks in China where they’ve invested billions are prolly already
feeling the heat.

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ancorevard
Bob Iger has long voiced his desire to retire, it's been postponed several
times. He wrote about it at length in his most recent book. Just pulled the
trigger.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
Surely you can see why "I have decided to retire right _now,_ effective
_immediately,_ today, not even finishing out the week, going home this
afternoon and never comin' back see y'all on the golf course" is going to
raise a few eyebrows. It's... not the way this sort of thing is usually
handled.

~~~
ancorevard
Yes, that would raise eyebrows, except that's not the case here at all.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
Those weren't his literal words, but I trust you get my point: in most cases,
this sort of transition is handled with something like "Joe Foobar will step
down as FoobarCo's CEO at the end of next month, transitioning to [insert
obviously ceremonial position]." This is an immediate transition to a position
which isn't obviously ceremonial at all.

I'm not suggesting anything tragic like a fatal illness, a #MeToo event, or a
presidential run, but only suggesting that this is an unusually-handled event.
Look at his predecessor Michael Eisner, who was forced to resign after losing
a boardroom battle -- Iger was announced as the next CEO in March 2005, but
Eisner didn't actually _leave_ until the end of September 2005, over six
months later.

~~~
perl4ever
It's hard to tell from outside of any place. I felt once that I was a victim
of attempted "constructive discharge", but I was not (and never have been)
immediately marched out after giving my two week notice. Conversely, I had a
boss that I never heard anything bad about or a scandal, who _was_ escorted
out with his stuff mailed to him after like a decade of service. Nobody
admitted to knowing why, except for the usual generic reasons for a layoff.

------
kick
It was announced in April, so I'm not sure exactly why people are saying it's
sudden. Am I missing something?

(Stupid headline, but it's what Wikipedia had cited for it prior to this
month.)

[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abigail-disney-tells-house-
comm...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abigail-disney-tells-house-committee-
ceo-bob-igers-65m-pay-is-a-moral-issue/)

~~~
stan_rogers
The "walking away" in that statement had nothing to do with leaving the
company, it was about his take-home.

~~~
kick
The revision history of the article that cites that post is really
interesting, I guess someone in the know let on more than they were supposed
to?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Iger&oldid=92...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Iger&oldid=928585142)

------
ei8htyfi5e
Multiple CEOs stepped down today (02/25): Disney, MasterCard, Salesforce, Uber
eats.

Could it be that their compensation is tied to the stock price and sticking
around for a few more months could cost them millions as the coronavirus
collapses the world economy?

~~~
neuronic
COVID-19 is not going to collapse anything, although it may disrupt the
economy.

The CFR is currently estimated at 2-3% of KNOWN cases with an enormous number
of unreported cases due to often mild symptoms. While it has and will spread
very wide, the vast majority of people will not even experience significant
complications.

We ARE experiencing a pandemic with significant impact on global economy but
it's not a collapse scenario.

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mroche
For anyone who wishes to see the Bobs discuss this change, they had ~10 minute
interview on CNBC at 5:30 EST earlier.

[https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/02/25/disneys-bob-iger-i-
wan...](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/02/25/disneys-bob-iger-i-want-to-
spend-more-time-on-creative.html)

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a_band
Is this unexpected? All the headlines make it sound like there's some sort of
scandal.

~~~
uptown
It’s a little goofy.

~~~
gaogao
It's an extremely goofy move.

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chriscatoya
He was ready to retire anyway and I think he's getting out of dodge while the
going is good. He successfully launched their streaming service, and if I were
him, I'd also want to get as far away as possible from the hospitality
industry given how the spread of covid-19 is going.

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RyanShook
Something doesn’t add up here. Why would Disney promote the head of parks in
the middle of the coronavirus outbreak? Really odd timing.

~~~
nnq
Parks will temporarily close. He'll have time/space to take on other extra
responsibility. Just boring reallocation of human resources?

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josefrichter
Very recently they released a new MasterClass with Bob Iger. It's very
unlikely he would engage in that if his plan was to step down soon. Also, if
any publicly-traded company CEO steps down so suddenly, there's always some
hidden reason behind that...

------
vkaku
Board of Directors appoints budget conscious CEO, top line drops 2.53%.

Who's running the board?

~~~
CGamesPlay
NASDAQ dropped 2.77%, seems like Disney beat the curve!

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newshorts
I wonder if he’s scared about coronavirus?

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tdburn
He ruined Star Wars

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justlexi93
After some issues that he has faced this month, he finally gives up his
title/position that must be tough for him.

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shmerl
Don't forget another "accomplishment" \- the Mickey Mouse curve.

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momofarm
Hey new emperor of mouse, how about put starwars charactet into marvel
universe, we can make all these even worse.

