One Line
Disney CEO Bob Iger's term has been prolonged until December 2026, with no apparent successor identified.
Slides
Slide Presentation (7 slides)
Key Points
- Bob Iger's return to the Disney corner office has been extended until December 2026.
- Iger has not positioned anyone to succeed him as the leader of Disney.
- Many strategic decisions made by Iger during his tenure have returned to haunt him.
- Disney stock has decreased since Iger returned to Burbank.
- The Disney board believes that Iger alone can save the company.
Summaries
17 word summary
Bob Iger's tenure as Disney CEO has been extended until December 2026, with no successor in sight.
40 word summary
Bob Iger's return to the Disney corner office has been extended until December 2026. The Disney board has been focusing on succession planning, but Iger has not positioned anyone to succeed him. During his first year back in office, Iger
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Iger, Ego & Superego - Puck
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Iger, Ego & Superego
Notes on the extension heard round the world, the comp question, the deal hypotheses, and whether Iger at Disney is the living exception to the de Gaulle postulation.
Does Bob Iger need to redesign Disney to find the right leader for the company going forward?
Photo: Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
July 16, 2023
Bob
Iger
s two-year return trip to the Disney corner office has been extendedsurprise, surpriseuntil the last day of December 2026, just as my Puck partner
Matt
Belloni
and I
predicted
a few weeks ago. It seemed like Iger enjoys being back in the limelight, and he has not really done anything to position anyone to succeed him, despite the Disney board retaining Heidrick & Struggles and creating a subcommittee of the board of directors to focus on succession (as, of course, it should).
Meanwhile, during the course of his first year back in office, Igers burdens increased rather than diminished, and many of the strategic decisions he made during his original tenurethe
Murdoch
deal, the challenges at Marvel, the uneven Disney+ strategyhave returned to haunt him and cant fairly be blamed on his short-lived predecessor,
Bob
Chapek
, no matter how convenient. Anyway, it has not been a Hollywood ending: Disney stock has gone down about 4 percent since Iger returned to Burbank, and yet the hapless Disney board of directors had no choice but to believe that Iger alone could save them.
Ive always loved the
de Gaulle
aphorism that
the graveyards are full of indispensable men
. (Indeed, this thought haunted my many long days and nights at Lazard, and elsewhere on Wall Street, as highfalutin bankers, perhaps the future subjects of
Dry Powder
, pushed an endless stream of work across my desk.) The Disney board may feel this way, too, but I am told by my Wall Street sources that Iger took the two-year extension only reluctantly. That seems hard to believe, although he did say in his now famous tone-deaf interview with CNBCs
Dave
Faber
on the sidelines of the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference last week that he did enjoy his brief 11 months of retirement and only came back to Disney because the board of directors asked him to return. (A Disney spokesperson declined to elaborate beyond what Iger told Faber.)
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