Disney News

Category: Bob Iger

  • Bob Iger Will Return as Disney’s CEO, Media Executives Predict

    Bob Iger Will Return as Disney’s CEO, Media Executives Predict

    Media executives predict Bob Iger will return as Disney’s CEO in 2022, according to a CNBC report.

    It hasn’t even been two years since Bob Chapek took over as Disney’s CEO. But one executive told CNBC there are already internal wagers at Disney about Iger returning.

    Iger, 70, repeatedly extended his contract after planning to retire in 2015, 2016 and 2018 before abruptly stepping down in 2020. He’s still Disney’s executive chairman until the end of the year.

    It’s unclear if Iger wants to return. He’s already working on a second book, according to The Hollywood Reporter, after publishing one in 2019.

    But Disney shares have stumbled this year, down nearly 20% year to date. Iger owns a lot of those shares. The board and Iger may get restless if Disney+ growth stagnates and the company continues to have turf tensions between executives.

  • Disney’s Bob Iger Blasts CDC’s Updated COVID-19 Guidelines

    Disney’s Bob Iger Blasts CDC’s Updated COVID-19 Guidelines

    Many people have raised concerns after The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a reversal in its guidance about COVID-19 testing including Disney Chairman Bob Iger.

    Iger took to Twitter on Wednesday night to call the shift in guidelines “horrifying”.

    “This is more than disappointing,” Iger wrote. “It is horrifying,” as you can see below:

    After weeks of encouraging those who may have been exposed to the coronavirus but are not showing symptoms to get tested, the CDC announced on Wednesday that new guidelines suggest that asymptomatic people may not need to be tested at all.

  • BREAKING: Disney’s Acquisition of 21st Century Fox is Finally Complete

    BREAKING: Disney’s Acquisition of 21st Century Fox is Finally Complete

    As of 12:02 am this morning Disney’s multi-billion dollar quest to obtain Twenty-First Century Fox’s assets is now officialy complete.

    Last December, Disney made an initial $52 billion offer for the bulk of Mr. Murdoch’s Fox empire. A bidding war broke out with Comcast submitting a $65 billion offer for the assets, but Disney quickly pushed back on Comcast’s offer with a higher bid of $71.3 billion, which Mr. Murdoch and his board quickly accepted. 

    Fox Corp. consists mainly of Fox Broadcasting, Fox Sports and Fox News. However; Disney is acquiring the Fox movie business, including Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox 2000 as well as Twentieth Century Fox Television, FX Productions and Fox21, with shows including “The Simpsons” and “Modern Family.”

    On Friday, Disney revealed the selections made by 21st Century Fox shareholders on whether to receive $38 in stock or cash in exchange for their Fox shares in the transaction. Slightly more than half — 51.57% — chose cash, while 36.65% chose Disney stock. The remaining 11.79% of holdings of roughly 1.8 billion shares outstanding did not make a selection by Thursday’s 5 p.m. ET deadline. Disney had projected that the compensation breakdown in cash and stock would be about 50-50.

    Fox Corp., the Fox assets that are not part of Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets, began trading as a stand-alone company on Tuesday.

    Last year, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger emphasized the business and strategic benefits of the takeover. “The acquisition of 21st Century Fox will bring significant financial value to the shareholders of both companies, and after six months of integration planning we’re even more enthusiastic and confident in the strategic fit of the assets and the talent at Fox,” Iger earlier said in a statement. “At a time of dynamic change in the entertainment industry, the combination of Disney’s and Fox’s unparalleled collection of businesses and franchises will allow us to create more appealing high-quality content, expand our direct-to-consumer offerings and international presence, and deliver more personalized and compelling entertainment experiences to meet growing consumer demand around the world.”

    There was so much more at stake here for Disney than the obvious rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four brands. They now finally have the distribution rights for the original Star Wars trilogy and prequel trilogy. Most of those rights reverted back to Disney in 2020, but the original 1977 film’s rights would have remained at Fox.

    Another bonus is the Avatar franchise. With an entire land devoted to the franchise holding ownership over it was of great importance to the company. James Cameron’s Avatar is a potentially massive film franchise that Disney already has a vested interest in seeing succeed. It means potentially huge business not just at the movie theater, but also when it comes to merchandise and theme park success.

    Disney now get its hands on the FX channel. And of course the vast, impressive, lucrative library of Fox movies and TV series from past and present, that they can add to their upcoming streaming service Disney+, Hulu or anywhere else the choose.

    Disney also gets Fox’s 30 percent stake in Hulu. Disney already has a 30 percent stake in Hulu, so that arrangement now gives the company majority ownership of the streaming platform. And as Disney prepares to launch its own streaming services in 2019, it could become an actual contender against Netflix by combining its existing content with Fox’s movie, television and sports content.

    The deal that brings an end to era of the ‘Big Six’ studios. Disney Now takes ownership of one of the United States’ largest movie studios in a deal that solidifies their position as media super giant. With this deal Disney now owns seven of the top ten worldwide highest grossing movies of all time.

  • Bernie Sanders Blasts Disney CEO Bob Iger On Twitter Over $400 Million Pay

    Bernie Sanders Blasts Disney CEO Bob Iger On Twitter Over $400 Million Pay

    U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders took aim at the mouse house today on twitter today calling out, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger over his $400 million pay.

    The longtime senator from Vermont asks in a tweet why Iger is paid hundreds of millions of dollars, while workers at Disney theme parks struggle to make ends meet.

    “Does Disney CEO Bob Iger have a good explanation for why he is being compensated more than $400 million while workers at Disneyland are homeless and relying on food stamps to feed their families?” tweeted Sanders. Take a look below.

    Sanders attacked Iger’s hefty pay package, which some estimates say could earn the executive as much as $423 million over the next four years if he hits all of his performance goals.

    Sanders has targeted Disney before.  While on the presidential campaign trail he used the media conglomerate as Exhibit A in what he calls a “rigged economy” at an Anaheim campaign event. “Anybody make a living wage at Disney?” Sanders asked the crowd.

    Sanders was referencing a survey conducted by the Economic Roundtable — which found that 73% of Disney employees who were questioned said they don’t earn enough to pay for such basic expenses as rent, food and gas. It also found that 11% of resort employees have been homeless or have not had a place of their own in the last two years.

    Disney dismissed the study calling it inaccurate and unscientific and paid for by labor groups seeking a pay raise. Disney officials have said that the average annual pay for hourly workers at the resort is $37,000, which calculates to about $17.80 an hour.

    In a Facebook post Iger responded to Sanders: “To Bernie Sanders: We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade and our company has created 18,000 in the U.S. in the last five years. How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the U.S. economy?”

    Sanders has been rallying with Disneyland workers in Anaheim, California, as they pushed for a minimum $15 per hour wage.

    “The struggle that you are waging here in Anaheim is not just for you,” Sanders told Disneyland workers last month at a rally. “It is a struggle for millions of workers all across this country who are sick and tired of working longer hours for lower wages.”

    Iger has thrown around the idea of running for president and he’s shown he willing to hold his ground and fire back, so we’ll have to see if this fizzles out or turns into a full out twitter war.