Bob Iger’s Contracted Extended
And now for something completely expected.
Robert Iger’s contract as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company has been extended through 2026.
For those of you asking, “What the fuck?” I understand well your consternation but I saw this one coming a mile off.
Yes, I understand. Bob Iger is the one that has put Disney in the disastrous position it’s in today. He overpaid drastically for Fox Entertainment by a factor of 100%, he let Kevin Fiege dismantle the machinery that had turned Marvel into a box office juggernaut, he allowed Kathleen Kennedy to continue driving the LucasFilm cart into the ground long after the wheels were sold off on eBay and he fired John Lassetter, replacing him with the utterly hopeless Pete Docter. The parks are empty at the height of the busy season, with the disastrous launch of Indiana Jones V the film division has lost a billion dollars since the collapse of Lightyear, and there are still two more candidates for box office martyrdom waiting in the wings before New Year’s Day. Also, Disney+, the thing that was supposed to spearhead Disney’s drive to complete streaming dominance has lost $1 billion per quarter since it was launched, and it just dropped behind Warner Brother’s Max streaming service.
According to Disney’s own documents they only have $10 billion in cash, that is somewhere between 3 to 6 weeks of operating capital on hand at any given time.
Which is really bad news because one of the few parts of the company that is doing well is Hulu and Disney is going to pull somewhere between $20 and $30 billion out of its ass to buy Universal’s share. Are you wondering where Universal got the money to make those park expansions? Disney is paying for them.
All of which is NOTHING compared to the collapse of Disney’s stock price which has cost the company $123 BILLION in value.
Is there any good news? Well, none of the ocean liners have sunk yet. So, yay?
The board of directors’ solution?
Extend Bob Iger’s contract.
And I knew it was coming. The business world was braced for this news since last week when word was leaked to friendly media channels that Iger wanted an extension.
You have to remember, the board of directors that just extended his contract is the same board of directors that ousted Chapek to bring him back in a Sunday Night Massacre. This isn’t about Bob Iger’s performance, this is about maintaining power.
There is no reason to believe that things will be turned around before the Hulu buyout. Disney simply doesn’t have the cash to pay for it, even Vanguard isn’t going to loan them another $30 billion. So it’s going to have to be a huge stock transfer to Comcast/Universal. Probably around 30% if the stock value doesn’t shift. Very likely that will have to be approved by the stockholders, and that means the board of directors is going to be changing. Universal is going to have at least two seats, Nelson Peltz is going to have a seat. None of whom are going to be feeling all that sentimental about keeping old Bob around.
Consequently, even with the huge pile of bad news growing daily, Iger had to get this extension in stone now.
Although, Bob seems to have forgotten about recent history. Another Bob got his contract as CEO of Disney extended for three years in June of 2022, yet by December the first, Chapek was fired in the most humiliating way possible.
Nah, I don’t think Iger has forgotten about that at all.
