Speaker 1: All right, but let's have a look at Walt Disney.
Speaker 1: It's shares up the most and almost two years that after,
Speaker 1: the company brought back former lead up Bob I get
Speaker 1: to replace his successor, Bob J. Peck as a CEO.
Speaker 1: Let's get to Chris peal Mary's he edited with Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Media and the Telecoms team. Thanks for joining us here, Chris,
Speaker 1: what do you make of this? Uh, well, it's a surprise. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, this had been a transition that had been
Speaker 1: in the works for years. Uh. And Bob Chapick was
Speaker 1: was Bob Iger's handpicked successor, but he clearly had a
Speaker 1: lot of problems. He is a brusque individual who was
Speaker 1: just never able to connect with employees. He obviously had
Speaker 1: a very difficult time taking over right at the start
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, but he didn't make life any easier
Speaker 1: with his approach and the way he ran the company. Chris,
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong. Chap It came from the
Speaker 1: theme park side, so maybe a lot of his skill
Speaker 1: set was it was not suited to a lot of
Speaker 1: the challenges the Disney is facing when it comes to
Speaker 1: things like ESPN or the streaming side of the business.
Speaker 1: That was one of the considerations. He's actually he's been
Speaker 1: at the company for a long time. He started out
Speaker 1: in the home entertainment, so he dealing with you know,
Speaker 1: actually videotapes back in the day. Then he ran consumer products,
Speaker 1: all the merchandise there, and then as you noted, that
Speaker 1: ran the theme parks, and and most of the analysts
Speaker 1: sort of agree he actually did a terrific job at
Speaker 1: the theme parks. Almost too good, he was. His tenure
Speaker 1: is going to be sort of most noted for really
Speaker 1: increasing prices. Uh, not a happy scene among the Disney
Speaker 1: theme park loyalists. He required reservations, he raised ticket prices.
Speaker 1: He started this new line cutting the system that you
Speaker 1: have to pay extra four so you know, we could
Speaker 1: add another forty dollars on top of your hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty dollar theme park tickets. So you know a lot
Speaker 1: of really dramatic price increases that have made the business
Speaker 1: for profitable but not beloved. All right, Well, I mean
Speaker 1: the thing is he was above Bigo was uh, I
Speaker 1: me think he was the chairman not too long ago
Speaker 1: of Disney and also see of course naturally as we
Speaker 1: know here, but you know, in the time he's been away,
Speaker 1: the landscape has changed so much. Do you think he's
Speaker 1: got the right tools to turn Disney around. He is,
Speaker 1: you know, widely regarded as just about the best media
Speaker 1: executive in the business. And if you look at the
Speaker 1: dramatic growth Disney had up until he left, you know,
Speaker 1: with the launch of Disney Plus, you know, was all
Speaker 1: his idea that you know now has you know, two
Speaker 1: hundred million subscribers worldwide, lull of their streaming businesses. Um,
Speaker 1: you've got um, you know, all of the acquisitions he
Speaker 1: did with Pixar, Marvel, lucasfilm Box. So he's he's a
Speaker 1: very creative guy, has good relations with all the talent
Speaker 1: and the talent agencies. But yeah, this is a challenge
Speaker 1: that one of the reasons Rapeck is out is because
Speaker 1: the streaming V business lost one point five billion dollars
Speaker 1: in the mostly some quarter. Uh that's a lot of
Speaker 1: money for any company. And he has Tiger has to
Speaker 1: navigate this transition between the traditional TV world, which is
Speaker 1: you know, people are watching less and less into this
Speaker 1: new streaming era and do it profitably. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: nobody sort of doubts that if there's anybody you can
Speaker 1: do it. It is Bob Eyer. It's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: because when you look back, before Mr Iger took the
Speaker 1: reins back in I think it was September two thousand five,
Speaker 1: Michael Eisner ran this company and he was pushed out,
Speaker 1: I believe at the time. And Eisner was regarded as
Speaker 1: a very effective CEO. But at some point, when the
Speaker 1: market starts moving against you, you have to be reactive.
Speaker 1: That's it. And you know, Eisner's also had you know,
Speaker 1: particularly in his first ten years or so. Uh, he
Speaker 1: did a terrific job growing to business, both the theme parks,
Speaker 1: you know, made the acquisition of Capital City's ABC that
Speaker 1: gave the company ESPN, you know, which was a huge,
Speaker 1: huge profit generator for years. Uh, it's just you know,
Speaker 1: stayed a little bit too long for a lot of
Speaker 1: people's comfort. Uh, things started going south and and that's
Speaker 1: when I stepped in, you know, But it was it
Speaker 1: was once again, it was very dramatic succession. Eisner did
Speaker 1: not go up quietly. Well, absolutely, that's it here as well, Chris,
Speaker 1: you know what happens next? What are the metrics that
Speaker 1: what has he got to deal with? First of all,
Speaker 1: what's on it to do list? We're already seeing some
Speaker 1: of the action. Today he announced that he was essentially
Speaker 1: ondoing this very unpopular move that Chapek had made internally,
Speaker 1: which Chapeck decided that everybody on the creative side and
Speaker 1: the traditional TV business to film studios and that uh
Speaker 1: needed to report to this one central authority which was
Speaker 1: going to be in chargeable business decisions, whether it's ad sales,
Speaker 1: what movies to make, what channels or streaming services to
Speaker 1: put TV show on. And you know this rankled the
Speaker 1: traditional studio heads and network chiefs who used to have
Speaker 1: that authority, and you know they were all listening to
Speaker 1: this this other business unit headed by this one individual,
Speaker 1: and uh so Iger fired him today Kareem Daniel and
Speaker 1: said that he's going to reconnect with all of the
Speaker 1: traditional head of the film studio, head of the TV business,
Speaker 1: head of ESPN and figure out a new corporate structure
Speaker 1: which will probably look a lot like the old one,
Speaker 1: where you have these individual managers responsible for their own
Speaker 1: decisions both a business and a creative standpoint. But I'm
Speaker 1: wondering whether or not part of his strategy will include
Speaker 1: exiting or at least reducing some of the company's exposure
Speaker 1: in certain business lines. We were talking earlier with one
Speaker 1: of our guests who was saying that maybe Hulu, for example,
Speaker 1: could be viewed differently as Iger returns to UH the
Speaker 1: CEO role. I'd be really surprised of that wor the case. Remember,
Speaker 1: Hulu UM is the company's interested who lose significantly increased
Speaker 1: under Iger's presence. You know, it went from to sixty
Speaker 1: three and then he negotiated the option to acquire UH
Speaker 1: Comcast one third UH and and you know that's a
Speaker 1: deal that they already have a contract on. Their question
Speaker 1: right now is just what price. I think that Hulus
Speaker 1: is very much a piece of this overall puzzle, the
Speaker 1: streaming service. It's very popular, it's got a lot of
Speaker 1: really good shows, and most likely after Disney acquires that
Speaker 1: other third, they're going to integrate it more fully into
Speaker 1: the Disney Plus product. Which if there's a criticism of
Speaker 1: Disney Plus, it's that it doesn't really have enough for adults,
Speaker 1: whereas Hulu that's exactly you know what what they have.
Speaker 1: So I think you'll you'll see who more fully integrated
Speaker 1: into the Disney streaming business. Underwriter, Well, the market seems
Speaker 1: to like this news, as Disney shares rallied by more
Speaker 1: than six percent today on news that Bob Iger will
Speaker 1: replace his successor, Bob Chapick A CEO. Chris Maul Paul Mary,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for being with us. Chris a senior
Speaker 1: editor with Bloomberg's Media and Telecom team,