Bob Iger’s Return Is Not Going As Planned
When Bob Iger returned to The Walt Disney Company in November 2022, he was heralded as the company’s savior.
Following the tumultuous tenure of Bob Chapek that saw the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney publically feuding with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and mounting losses in streaming, investors and Disney fans alike looked at Iger as their knight in shining armor.
Photo: Charles Krupa/AP
Almost a year into his second tenure as Disney’s CEO, one can’t help but wonder if Iger doesn’t wish he had stayed retired.
Disney’s Mounting Challenges
Stocks in The Walt Disney Company are now down 9% since his return, Nelson Peltz has acquired even more ammunition for a second run at a Disney board seat, and the company is continuing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in its streaming department.
Image: Disney
According to reports, Iger regretted his initial decision to step down from the CEO role in 2019 but returned to find the company in worse shape than he realized.
Even the June announcement that Iger’s contract had been extended beyond the initial 2-year deal he signed was quickly marred by a PR faux pas by the usually measured Iger.
Photo: Masterclass
When asked about the then-ongoing WGA strike and the looming SAG-AFTRA strike, Iger stated that Hollywood creatives were “just not realistic”. He also bemoaned the timing of the strikes, arguing that studios had still not recovered from the financial implications of the pandemic.
Iger, who had traditionally been a champion of creative talent, now found himself cast as the poster boy for the out-of-touch billionaire class.
Photo: NBS News
“There he is, sitting in his designer clothes and just got off his private jet at the billionaires’ camp, telling us we’re unrealistic when he’s making $78,000 a day. How do you deal with someone like that who’s so tone-deaf?” said Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA.
“Why Did I Come Back”
As Disney’s laundry list of challenges increases (streaming, Hollywood strikes, uneven box office results, and declining profitability in linear television), Iger has reportedly retreated to his yacht in the Mediterranean. When asked about his return, the Disney CEO has wearily responded, “Why did I come back?”
Photo: Getty Images
To say Disney has large challenges ahead of it, however, is not to say that Iger’s return has been a failure.
The company’s streaming services have begun to push toward profitability, a goal that the company has set for 2024. Additionally, Iger has been able to streamline the structure of The Walt Disney Company and rally the studio’s creative talent after they were increasingly pushed aside by Chapek.
Iger also finally bit the bullet and announced that Disney would be entering the sports gambling sphere with ESPN. More recently, he has signaled his desire to move Disney out of the middle of the culture wars.
The Final Act
What happens next will largely define not only Bob Iger’s legacy but the future of The Walt Disney Company.
Disney is going to have to make radical changes to its linear television model, perhaps including a sale of ABC.
In streaming, a purchase of Comcast’s stake in Hulu is on the horizon, as is the integration of the Disney+ and Hulu libraries into a “one app” experience.
Photo: THIERRY CHESNOT/GETTY IMAGES
And finally, there is the question of a successor. According to Bloomberg, Iger finds himself increasingly isolated within The Walt Disney Company, as many of his former peers have left. How he chooses the future leader of The Walt Disney Company against that backdrop will be paramount.
Photo: PRNewsFoto/The Walt Disney Co.
In Iger’s final act, he will have to face more challenges than he has at any time in his career. Then, perhaps he can finally sail off into the sunset.
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