Could Disney Hire a Netflix Exec as CEO?

The Walt Disney Company just announced a shocking change at the top.

James Gorman will succeed Mark Parker as Disney’s Chairman of the Board.

Even the CEO answers to the Board’s Chairman. When Iger returned, Susan Arnold held that role.

The longtime Board member had replaced Iger. After the CEO agreed to return, she never offered to relinquish her control.

Disney needs checks and balances to succeed, something we learned when Iger chose his successor, settling on…Bob Chapek.

Due to the lingering impact of that debacle, Disney’s Board knows that it cannot make this mistake again.

So, let’s discuss who might replace Bob Iger and Why.

Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman

On October 23^rd, 2024, established Disney insider Drew Taylor at The Wrap wrote this evaluation.

Let’s start with the headline from the article. Taylor perceives the two frontrunners as Dana Walden and Alan Bergman.

The analyst describes Walden as the favorite, which is how many insiders perceive her at the moment.

The surprise is that Taylor suggests Bergman has pulled ahead of ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro.

Before you get too excited by this statement, you should remember something.

Taylor writes for a Hollywood publication, and many of his contacts work in the industry.

So, they perceive the conversation from the perspective of creatives. As such, they believe Disney will pick a creative.

Frankly, that makes a lot of sense in that the Disney Flywheel relies on new content.

When Disney suffers through creative dry spells, every core business experiences revenue shortfalls save for arguably ESPN.

For this reason, the selection of Bergman would be a completely justifiable choice.

You can look at Disney’s 2024 financials to appreciate Bergman’s contributions.

Films like Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine earned billions of dollars. They also gained theme park presences.

In the process, Disney sold admission tickets and Disney+ subscriptions as fans coveted this content.

Walden has demonstrated tremendous skill in feeding the content machine as well.

However, her contributions come through the television division, whose impact isn’t as noteworthy at the theme parks.

You won’t find many connections to The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, or Shogun at Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

These are the arcane factors Disney and soon-to-be Chairman Gorman must consider.

Disney needs a generational candidate to lead the company for…the next generation.

What Wall Street Expects

Since Iger’s return, I’ve published quarterly power rankings on Disney’s CEO succession race.

It’s utterly ridiculous that we must do this, yet here we are. Disney just kicked the can down the road another year.

While previous reports suggested Disney would name Bob Iger’s replacement this year, we’ll apparently wait until 2026.

Taylor lists his understanding of where the candidates stand, and what he’s hearing isn’t what I’ve been hearing.

That speaks to the fact that we clearly aren’t speaking to the same people and that, again, he’s hearing the most from Hollywood executives.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street crowd is crowing over Gorman’s ascension to Disney’s Chairman of the Board.

As a former Morgan Stanley CEO and Chairman, Gorman has earned his reputation as a legendary banking executive.

He is to the financial world what Iger is to Hollywood in terms of media and brand legacies.

So, Wall Street feels confident that Gorman will pick someone with a strong financial track record.

If that’s true, all four of Disney’s internal CEO candidates are in trouble.

However, I’m dubious that it is since Taylor also dismisses the candidacies of Thomas Staggs and Kevin Mayer.

They’re former Disney executives who have been in a previous succession scramble.

Those two executives currently run Candle Media, which means that THEY have a strong financial background.

We’re discussing two people to whom Gorman would ostensibly give more credence. Instead, Taylor has heard they’re out of the running.

I said something similar when the executives revealed that they were no longer helping Iger at Disney.

The CEO called old friends, people he could trust, to right the ship. Now that they have, their continued presence would muddy the narrative.

To a larger point, let’s remember that Disney recently chose a money-first successor. It was Bob Chapek. So…

A Fascinating Outsider

Deadline published this story on October 22^nd.

The headline tells the story: “Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Says Disney CEO Job “Not Even On My Mind.”

I think he’s lying in that it’d be human nature to idly wonder about what’s a dream job for everyone in Hollywood.

The fit is the fascinating part of this supposition, though. As Deadline recounts, Sarandos has been with Netflix since the early days.

His job was once to acquire DVDs from retailers like Best Buy and Walmart.

When Netflix rented physical media, someone had to buy the physical copies, and that was Sarandos.

As Netflix scaled up and evolved into a digital powerhouse, Sarandos gained a reputation as one of the company’s most gifted executives.

Ultimately, Sarandos became co-CEO of Netflix, along with Greg Peters.

Hollywood and Wall Street rarely agree on anything, but both industries know that co-CEOs rarely work.

Humans have too much ego, especially in corporate C-Suites. So, there’s a prevailing belief that one of them will eventually jump ship.

Disney provides exactly the sort of opportunity that would tempt an executive like Sarandos. As such, the possibility shouldn’t be dismissed.

A few years ago, Bob Chapek proclaimed Disney a digital business now. Even with Iger back in charge, that statement still applies.

Few people on this planet possess the sort of digital track record that Sarandos does.

In September, Fast Company published a story about Netflix’s novel leadership arrangement.

Here’s one key takeaway: “Sarandos’s role includes running point on content, marketing, legal, communications, and publicity.”

Is Sarandos a Candidate?

The other is that Sarandos had previously held the title of Co-CEO with founder Reed Hastings.

Once Hastings dropped the CEO title, Sarandos didn’t inherit the standalone CEO title. Instead, Hastings promoted Peters as Co-CEO.

You can imagine how that wouldn’t sit well with some people. Since then, Netflix has reported record profits again and again.

As one of my Streaming into the Void co-hosts said the other day, Netflix literally had $2 billion it couldn’t even spend.

You know you’re running a smooth operation when your cash flow exceeds your imagination.

Disney hiring Sarandos as CEO makes at least surface-level sense in that he’s demonstrated that sort of exceptional business acumen.

Meanwhile, the co-CEO has also handled Netflix’s unprecedented content machine, the one that has dominated streaming for 15+ years.

Sarandos has even recently added live sports, with Netflix introducing WWE and NFL programming.

The other trait he lacks from a Disney perspective is theme park experience.

So, Sarandos would be a perfect fit as CEO with D’Amaro as Disney’s President or COO, or the duo could share the co-CEO title.

How likely is that? Honestly. I’m dubious. Sarandos has no reason to leave a company that has grown too big to fail.

Meanwhile, if Disney chooses Co-CEOs, Walden and D’Amaro are the dream pairing.

Still, Sarandos presents as precisely the kind of ideal outside candidate who could disrupt Disney succession.

I don’t view him as a likely contender for CEO, but he’s the prototype for the kind of leader Gorman may prefer.

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