The Troubled Second Act of Disney CEO Bob Iger - The Journal. - WSJ Podcasts

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🎧 Listen: In today’s episode of The Journal podcast, RWhelanWSJ breaks down Bob Iger’s troubled return as Disney’s CEO and why the company’s challenges run deeper than he had expected

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Speaker 4: I was so happy when I saw the news last night. I thought I was dreaming and it was like my dream came true.Robbie Whelan: Bob Iger is, in a lot of people's estimation, the best media executive in history, the most successful media executive history, and sort of near the top of the list for just American CEOs in general in terms of what he did with Disney between the years of 2005 and 2020. He built them into this just total juggernaut.

Robbie Whelan: Bob Iger is a very smart and very well-spoken guy. One word that people will use for him sometimes that I totally agree with is senatorial. He's a guy who's very easy around talent, around creative people. He's very calm and casual around people who you and I might be intimidated by. But also he's a man who makes their dreams come true.

Robbie Whelan: Bob Iger had this roadmap and I think he thought, "This guy will be able to follow this roadmap to success without changing the company too drastically." And that's not exactly how it worked out. Bob Chapek was a numbers guy. He prioritized ways of getting as much income out of every business Disney's in. And he was really focused on streaming and growing the numbers, growing the subscriber base for streaming.

Robbie Whelan: Disney's TV business includes, well, the biggest part of it is ESPN, which is the most watched sports network in the world. They also own the ABC Network. They own a number of cable TV channels, networks, including Freeform, the Disney Channel.Kate Linebaugh: For decades, the TV business has been extremely profitable for Disney. In some years it accounted for about a third of the company's revenue.

Kate Linebaugh: As a part of building out Disney Plus, Iger wanted more content. And he found it in that deal with Fox to buy a roster of shows, movies, and sports broadcasting rights. Kate Linebaugh: In January, some of Disney's shareholders launched a rebellion. It was led by activist investor Nelson Peltz, with the help of his friend Ike Perlmutter Perlmutter, the former chairman of Marvel, is one of Disney's largest individual shareholders. One of the big issues they had was the billions of dollars of debt that Disney took on for the Fox deal. Disney said the deal was, "critical to compete in streaming.

 

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