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Iger Stepping Down, Chapek Replaces

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If Chapek is ousted (contract not renewed, much like many bad shows that get multiple seasons, or the board votes to remove him), I can guarantee they will bring in someone from the outside or more likely try to talk Iger into unretiring since he sort of created this monster by making him CEO.
It was equal parts Chapek being made CEO and Kevin Mayer not being made CEO because he was a colossal **** and had no experience in half of the businesses. Chapek goes to show that you don’t have to have done something well, you just have to have done it. I would think that would be the strike against Josh if they stayed internal.

Too bad they pissed off Catherine Powell.

Ok so recently I think the algorithm has fully moved me into Distwitter. For those of you have been there for a while, is it always this critical of Disney? I don’t mean the social issues/the Don’t Say Gay bill. Im glad that’s happening. I mean more so about the cost vs value discussion that’s taking place. Reading it feels like a substantial shift, but I can’t tell if that’s always a core tenant of Distwitter, or if there is a sizable ground swell from those who have been hardcore fans.
That’s all been going on basically since message boards were created, it’s just in people’s hands 24/7 now.
 
Ok so recently I think the algorithm has fully moved me into Distwitter. For those of you have been there for a while, is it always this critical of Disney? I don’t mean the social issues/the Don’t Say Gay bill. Im glad that’s happening. I mean more so about the cost vs value discussion that’s taking place. Reading it feels like a substantial shift, but I can’t tell if that’s always a core tenant of Distwitter, or if there is a sizable ground swell from those who have been hardcore fans.

It’s always been there but quieter. Lots of pro-Disney people are picking up on it as the camels back breaks.
 
I'm for hire and I will bring Disney back 20 years by opening every year a new high capacity ride, revitalizing hand drawn animations and put a break on Marvel and Star Wars to not saturate the market and ruin the ip's and in the mean time restructure Lucas Art with a qualified person to replace Katherine Kennedy. No apps, no cutting the line for money. Bring back hotel quality to 20 years ago. Re-introduce themed napkins. We won't us "Magic" in our communication anymore, we are going to earn that from our customers.
The company will not make any profit for 10 years, the investors will hate me and kick me out but the name Disney will mean something again and that is priceless.

I would support your nomination, especially if Genie+ gets cut and Imagineering is reined in.
 
I would support your nomination, especially if Genie+ gets cut and Imagineering is reined in.
Tbh I'm not sure that it's imagineering so much as their procurement and financials departments that need to be reined in. $500M budgets for things like the Tron coaster are more indicative of bad contracts and accounting practices than anything else.

Harmonious is bad Imagineering, but that's more to do with lack of interdepartmental communications with operations than the fundamental concept itself
 
I don't think Iger would come back. He's had the long goodbye for ages, and unless it's purely an advisory role, his stock comp would most likely get jeopardized by coming back in. Plus it confirms that Chapeck was an error, which the Board wouldn't want to do.

Since D+ is such a big part of the focus, I could see them taking someone from the tech space because they want to trade at tech-like multiples, but I have no idea who.

If their stock gets soft enough, there's always an Apple in the wings that can scoop them up and they'd only be about 10% of Apple's market cap with a buyer premium.
 
I don't think Iger would come back. He's had the long goodbye for ages, and unless it's purely an advisory role, his stock comp would most likely get jeopardized by coming back in. Plus it confirms that Chapeck was an error, which the Board wouldn't want to do.

Since D+ is such a big part of the focus, I could see them taking someone from the tech space because they want to trade at tech-like multiples, but I have no idea who.

If their stock gets soft enough, there's always an Apple in the wings that can scoop them up and they'd only be about 10% of Apple's market cap with a buyer premium.
Apple would buy without the theme parks/cruise lines. They have no interest in those types of things.
 
I don't think Iger would come back. He's had the long goodbye for ages, and unless it's purely an advisory role, his stock comp would most likely get jeopardized by coming back in. Plus it confirms that Chapeck was an error, which the Board wouldn't want to do.

Since D+ is such a big part of the focus, I could see them taking someone from the tech space because they want to trade at tech-like multiples, but I have no idea who.

If their stock gets soft enough, there's always an Apple in the wings that can scoop them up and they'd only be about 10% of Apple's market cap with a buyer premium.

Anyone that they bring in to complete Iger’s transition/model of a tech company is going to face similar scrutiny as Chapek. Big tech doesn’t have the positive rep it had 10 years ago. At minimum, they need someone with charisma to make the medicine go down.
 
Anyone that they bring in to complete Iger’s transition/model of a tech company is going to face similar scrutiny as Chapek. Big tech doesn’t have the positive rep it had 10 years ago. At minimum, they need someone with charisma to make the medicine go down.
Once again, they need someone like David Zaslav. In the clip below, he's talking about spending more after buying Warners for $43B and is also $43B in debt, so they essentially bought them for $86B. Yet he made the pill go down easy and immediately started talking new deals and people feel confident because he has shown he knows what he's doing and he always talks with a smile. Plain and simple, people believe in him.

 
Apple would buy without the theme parks/cruise lines. They have no interest in those types of things.
People said the same about Comcast-- they were going to sell off the theme parks when they bought NBC/Universal too. Turned out they saw potential there and kept them. The Disney theme parks are iconic and can be leveraged for promotion better than just about anything.
 
Anyone that they bring in to complete Iger’s transition/model of a tech company is going to face similar scrutiny as Chapek. Big tech doesn’t have the positive rep it had 10 years ago. At minimum, they need someone with charisma to make the medicine go down.
What do you mean by "the medicine"
 
What do you mean by "the medicine"

The fact the the company has pivoted to tech giant space and that the parks are not the priority. This article does a really good job breaking it down.

Conceptually, Chapek’s idea actually isn’t all that different from what Iger had begun to put in place with the organization of Disney+. In early 2018, Iger met with Robert Kyncl, chief business officer at Google’s YouTube, according to people familiar with the meeting. Before Google, Kyncl had worked for seven years at Netflix, overseeing content partnerships.
Robert Kyncl, global head of content at YouTube Inc.

Robert Kyncl, global head of content at YouTube Inc.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Kyncl told Iger if he wanted Disney to start trading at Netflix-like multiples — which were, at the time, orders of magnitude higher than Disney’s — Iger needed to run operations like a technology company. Google separated its content and distribution divisions. The same roles didn’t live within smaller groups, the way Disney had been structured for years.
Kyncl declined to comment to CNBC about the meeting.

If Disney wanted investors to see its burgeoning streaming service as the growth engine in a digital-first world, Iger realized he needed to centralize power around Disney+. According to two people familiar with the meeting, Iger urgently asked then-Disney head of strategy Kevin Mayer to return from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas so Iger could show him a new organizational structure, which he drew on a whiteboard in front of Mayer. Mayer would become the head of Disney’s new direct-to-consumer unit, in charge of the company’s streaming platforms: Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. Disney officially reorganized in March 2018.



Basically, Iger was already making these moves but had the charisma to sell it/keep the negative PR at bay. Chapek does not. They need someone who can. They are at their core a media conglomerate. We are parks focused group. It’s why we get excited when someone at Comcast recognizes growth potential for the company through the parks division. That is not Disneys’s current MO. They are the industry leader there, so they are shifting to digital terrain. There is a lot of talk about the meta verse and tech spaces in that article.
 
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The fact the the company has pivoted to tech giant space and that the parks are not the priority. This article does a really good job breaking it down.
Yes so true,

Ironically, I tend to agree that D+ getting the majority of resources is the smarter route for the company as a whole...even though I am a theme park nut

Long-form storytelling (i.e. D+ series) is where the future is
 
Yes so true,

Ironically, I tend to agree that D+ getting the majority of resources is the smarter route for the company as a whole...even though I am a theme park nut

Long-form storytelling (i.e. D+ series) is where the future is

Completely agree. I know we all want a big parks push, and that’s where the core frustrations with Chapek lies. Price gauging, lines, scheduling, etc. But this was the same Disney that really revolutionized the home viewing market back in the day. Replacing him doesn’t stop Disney + being top priority or move that capital to the parks.
 
Completely agree. I know we all want a big parks push, and that’s where the core frustrations with Chapek lies. Price gauging, lines, scheduling, etc. But this was the same Disney that really revolutionized the home viewing market back in the day. Replacing him doesn’t stop Disney + being top priority or move that capital to the parks.
I don't know if "price gouging" is applicable, but I will agree that he has made the park experience more dysfunctional in "you didn't notice, but your brain did" type way

When it comes down to it, we'll just have to wait and see what D+ numbers continue to do...I mean, we know the parks are going to be profitable, even with stagnant attendance
 
Basically, Iger was already making these moves but had the charisma to sell it/keep the negative PR at bay. Chapek does not. They need someone who can. They are at their core a media conglomerate.

Iger had one thing that Chapek does not, Zenia Mucha. Her importance for the Disney brand during Iger's time cannot be overstated.
 
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