Bob Iger Steps Down as CEO, Chapek to Succeed Iger as CEO

[hertamaniac]

Disney always has substantial plans in the works. What gets approved is another question.

And I would say the quantity of WDW plans will get increased over not having EU coming.

 

[CastAStone]

Disney 2020:

• Significant unplanned park closures
• Movie box office almost certain to fall by billions vs YA
• Merch sales, which lives and dies with movie releases, likely to fall
• ESPN losing subs
• ABC losing viewers
• NFL contract up where winning networks will get hosed and losing networks will get hosed even more
• Huge increases in college football rights fees
• 21CF integration
• Little expected from 21C movie studio
• Hundreds of millions (billions?) in rights fee payments from Netflix et al forfeited to launch D+ and expand Hulu, which will not return those funds for years

Maybe the board was concerned. Maybe Iger ducked out. Either way, I feel bad for Chapek, who is set up to fail.

Here's hoping D+ and Hulu continue to overperform.

 

[hertamaniac]

Bring on the "Tragic Kingdom" villains park!!

You know, that's exactly what I was thinking. You're right that this isn't happening anytime soon and agree to increase the quality for the existing parks. In any case, it will be interesting what Chapek brings/cuts over the next couple of years.

 

[Brianstl]

Other factors such as the virus concerns pulled heavily on the market today. So hard to really quantify this announcement in terms of stock price reflection.

The big player in the aftermarket drop is the Iger news. It doesn't mean they hate Chapek, it is the uncertainty at a challenging time for Disney and the uncertainty of why this move was deemed necessary to do at this time.

 

[RunPrincessMegan]

lol Half of Disney Fans on Twitter are losing their minds.

He is not well liked with a lot of the people.

Is anyone else crying???? Pete always talks that Bob is all about the BOTTOM LINE and does not hold on to old Disney traditions.... BRB GETTING TISSUES

 

[rteetz]

Disney 2020:

• Significant unplanned park closures
• Movie box office almost certain to fall by billions vs YA
• Merch sales, which lives and dies with movie releases, likely to fall
• ESPN losing subs
• ABC losing viewers
• NFL contract up where winning networks will get hosed and losing networks will get hosed even more
• Huge increases in college football rights fees
• 21CF integration
• Little expected from 21C movie studio
• Hundreds of millions (billions?) in rights fee payments from Netflix et al forfeited to launch D+ and expand Hulu, which will not return those funds for years

Maybe the board was concerned. Maybe Iger ducked out. Either way, I feel bad for Chapek, who is set up to fail.

Here's hoping D+ and Hulu continue to overperform.

Disney already was expecting a box office decline. You can't expect a company to continue a $11 billion box office.

ESPN+ has been rising so that is good.

Disney has remained in talks on NFL stuff.

Disney+ has been above their expectations as well which is good.

 

[TsWade2]

Look! I know you're all upset and confused for why Bob Chapek has to be chosen for the new CEO of Disney, but we must be open minded. I'm giving him a chance. And I want to hear what he wants to do with the company before passing judgement. That my friends, is called maturity.

 

[J-BOY]

Potter was not a new park. VB did make a dent and captured MS. A new CEO should have multiple plans ready and available to execute once the numbers/impact EU brings. If not, then that's not a CEO I want running my company.

Why would a CEO be entirely responsible for “new ideas” for 1 out of 7 worldwide resorts in one of several branches of the company? WDW is a big part of the company, sure, but that’s what the Parks and Resorts division is for. It’s not like Walt’s days anymore where he was the direct creative head of movies and decided to spend his time working on a singular theme park.

 

[Mome Rath]

Not a lot of detail in their interview. Just painted it as a longer, gradual succession.

 

[hertamaniac]

Why would a CEO be entirely responsible for “new ideas” for 1 out of 7 worldwide resorts in one of several branches of the company? WDW is a big part of the company, sure, but that’s what the Parks and Resorts division is for. It’s not like Walt’s days anymore where he was the direct creative head of movies and decided to spend his time working on a singular theme park.

Who said the CEO is entirely responsible? CEO's can and should appoint their EVP's to create the plans with their teams (such as P&R division). Sometime the EVP's are released long before the CEO.

 

[CastAStone]

Is anyone else crying???? Pete always talks that Bob is all about the BOTTOM LINE and does not hold on to old Disney traditions.... BRB GETTING TISSUES

I am sad. There’s so few people anymore who understand you can’t cut your way to growth. I work in corporate America, I can tell you how rare that is. Iger invested Billions in the parks, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, and made Disney a much more consumer friendly company.

Just look at them spending $10M/episode on the Mandalorian. How many CEOs would’ve done that?

It was worth every penny though.

 

[rteetz]

Not a lot of detail in their interview. Just painted it as a longer, gradual succession.

Which I think in this case is a good thing.

 

[gdrj]

It's pretty much the entire reason for it...
2 theme parks closed for months
China's entire movie theater network also closed (and probably to be followed by other countries)
ABDs needing to be canceled left and right
China's factory shutdowns (can you say toys and merchandise shortages)

It's gonna be an ugly quarter...and it seems like it will get worse the next one, not better...

It's not that corona has killed a lot of people...but it has killed a lot of business in Disney's core fields...Disney+ should help bail out some of the numbers, but it's gonna be ugly...

All Parks and Cruises could also be impacted. Tourism from Asia will be impacted World wide. Manufacturing of merchandise will be impacted. If virus gets a foot hold in the US, economic impact on all businesses could bring economy to its knees.

 

[Brianstl]

Disney 2020:

• Significant unplanned park closures
• Movie box office almost certain to fall by billions vs YA
• Merch sales, which lives and dies with movie releases, likely to fall
• ESPN losing subs
• ABC losing viewers
• NFL contract up where winning networks will get hosed and losing networks will get hosed even more
• Huge increases in college football rights fees
• 21CF integration
• Little expected from 21C movie studio
• Hundreds of millions (billions?) in rights fee payments from Netflix et al forfeited to launch D+ and expand Hulu, which will not return those funds for years

Maybe the board was concerned. Maybe Iger ducked out. Either way, I feel bad for Chapek, who is set up to fail.

Here's hoping D+ and Hulu continue to overperform.

Chapek has to have a at least a few major shareholders in his corner on this and that will by him time. Maybe the Murdochs pushed hard for him or one of the big funds. He has a challenge. If he leads Disney successfully through it all, in five years people will be trashing Iger like they now trash Eisner while singing the praises of the visionary businessman Bob Chapek. People have short memories and the guy now running the company will have Disney's PR machine to write the story of Bob Chapek.

 

[gdrj]

Or hes worth half a billion dollars and really doesn't need the income.

No one is going to walk away from 60 million.

 

[J-BOY]

Who said the CEO is entirely responsible? CEO's can and should appoint their EVP's to create the plans with their teams (such as P&R division). Sometime the EVP's are released long before the CEO.

I was just replying to your initial comment, where you said that a new CEO needs to come into the position with "a plan" to address Universal's competition or you'd view them negatively. I don't really consider tapping EVP's to do the work "a plan."

 

[clarker99]

The takes are spicy hot right now. My initial reaction is that I am happy Chapek is no longer head of parks but I think Disney's plans for the parks are mostly mapped out for the next decade or so. They have lots in the pipeline and I am sure they have measures in place for WDW to answer anything Universal comes out with.

 

[dlavender]

I wonder if you can see his golden parachute from space?

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1232440361282195457

 

[rteetz]

All Parks and Cruises could also be impacted. Tourism from Asia will be impacted World wide. Manufacturing of merchandise will be impacted. If virus gets a foot hold in the US, economic impact on all businesses could bring economy to its knees.

Disney has said that Asia makes up a very small percentage of their domestic park visitation.