Change in Parks Management?

[Stitch 03]

Found this buried in AL Lutz's article on Miceage today:

'Unfortunately, the buzz circling in both Anaheim and Burbank that Jay Rasulo is on very thin ice with Bob Iger hasn't helped Grier's tenuous start in Anaheim. There's been quite a few rumors amongst the executives and senior management that Rasulo will be gone before Christmas, and that obviously has many folks in Anaheim wondering what that means for Ed Grier. Ed was clearly picked for a meteoric rise up the executive totem pole by Jay Rasulo in the last three years, and there's no telling what would happen to someone so closely connected to Rasulo if Rasulo is handed a golden parachute sometime soon. Like most of those senior executive departures, we likely won't know more than those highly placed rumors until the Burbank press release comes out announcing Rasulo will be resigning suddenly to "spend more time with his family."'

BTW, 'unfortunately' refers to Ed Grier's tenure.

Anyone hear anything about this or have any insight?

 

[raidermatt]

Haven't heard anything else beyond Lutz's column.

But, if true, this would raise all kinds of interesting questions, beginning with if the parks are really doing as well as we were lead to believe, why would Rasulo be on thin ice with Iger?

 

[Stitch 03]

Why is he on thin ice? Here are some things I have heard (all speculation of course):

1) Year of a million dreams not being well thought out
2) Ouimet leaving
3) Botched Shanghai negotiations

 

[raidermatt]

Throw in DSP and HKDL and you've got a nice quintet.

But when you listen to the earnings calls, its a pretty picture they're painting for the parks/resorts overall. You ususally don't fire the guy running them if the bottom line performance is up to snuff, which we've been told it is.

 

[manning]

Ah, when human emotions get involved.

You know that old saying "Cut off your nose to spite your face"

I've seen more than one executive do that, fire someone for the simple reason they didn't like em!!

 

[Stitch 03]

Maybe, just maybe Iger is happy with the short term financial results, but fears what will happen in the long-term.