Nearly two years ago, now ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill. The bill was championed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Shortly after Chapek spoke out against the bill, Governor DeSantis began his crusade against the House of Mouse.
Mr. DeSantis and the Republican-led state legislature quickly dissolved the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which stripped Disney of its right to self-govern. They then voted to move Disney’s monorail system under state inspection control. The Governor appointed his own loyalists to lead the district formerly known as Reedy Creek. That new board is now having its own issues with the company.
After more than a year of dealing with the Governor, Disney officially filed a lawsuit against DeSantis. The company claimed that Mr. DeSantis had violated its First Amendment rights to free speech when he targeted them. Disney claimed that the governor had waged a campaign of retaliation against them, simply because they said something that he did not like.
Now, a judge has sided with the controversial Governor. Disney’s case against Ron DeSantis has officially been dismissed.
District Judge Allen Winsor said that Disney did not have a claim of retaliation because the laws DeSantis created that targeted the company are “facially constitutional.”
DeSantis’ lawyer had made that claim earlier when asking the judge to dismiss the case. The governor’s legal team said that it “didn’t matter” if DeSantis punished Disney, because the laws he passed looked constitutional. Because the laws appeared constitutional at face value, it doesn’t matter if it was created for a retaliatory reason.
The judge also determined that Governor DeSantis had every right to dissolve Reedy Creek and then appoint a board of his own loyalists.
Disney, however, highly disagreed with the judge’s ruling. Shortly after the ruling, a Disney spokesperson released a short statement:
“This is an important case with serious implications for the rule of law, and it will not end here. If left unchallenged, this would set a dangerous precedent and give license to states to weaponize their official powers to punish the expression of political viewpoints they disagree with.”
Disney has not said yet if it plans to appeal the judge’s ruling, but its statement appears to indicate such a move.
The ruling is relatively surprising, considering that Governor DeSantis admitted multiple times to going after Disney because they spoke out against him. He even admitted to retaliation in his new book. Many constitutional law experts said that Disney had a very strong case.
Nearly one year ago, billionaire Nelson Peltz announced that he would be trying to gain a seat on Disney’s Board of Directors. He said that he didn’t think Disney was going in the right direction and wasn’t making its shareholders enough money. He gave up his fight when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that he would be eliminating thousands of jobs and cutting $5.5 billion from Disney’s budget.
However, Peltz recently picked up the fight again, but this time, he announced that he wasn’t just targeting one seat on Disney’s board, he was going after several. Peltz said that he had given Iger a chance to “right the ship,” but the embattled CEO had not done so.
But Iger and Disney weren’t going to back down without a fight. The company released a statement, claiming that Peltz only wanted seats on the board because of his close relationship with fired Marvel executive, Ike Perlmutter. They said that Perlmutter had a vendetta against the company and was using Peltz to make that happen.
And now, Disney just got some big backup in its fight against Peltz and Perlmutter. According to Disney, the company has entered into an agreement with investment group ValueAct. Per The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney and ValueAct have entered into a “confidentiality agreement that enables the company to provide information to the investment firm and consult with ValueAct on strategic matters, including through meetings with the Disney board and management,” the company said on Wednesday.
As part of the arrangement, ValueAct also confirmed that it would support the Disney slate of nominees for the company’s board of directors at Disney’s upcoming annual shareholder meeting. The news comes amid Disney’s proxy battle with Nelson Peltz and his firm Trian Partners, an effort backed by ousted Marvel mogul Ike Perlmutter.
Peltz is hoping to get enough shareholders to vote for him and his loyalists so they can have at least two, if not three, seats on Disney’s Board of Directors. Should they be successful, this could mean that massive changes might take place within the company. Ike Perlmutter is an outspoken conservative and a large supporter of Donald Trump.
Disney has been making more content that reflects the world we currently live in — meaning more diverse characters and family units. The company has frequently been accused of being “woke”, which Peltz and Perlmutter might put an end to if they gain those coveted seats.
Nominations for new board members will take place until January 4, 2024.
In an unexpected but perhaps understandable turn of events, Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced his resignation from The Walt Disney Company, though his departure will not be effective immediately.
Bob Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005 and continued in that role until February 2020, when he abruptly stepped down, effective immediately, just before the dawn of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Then-Disney Parks President Bob Chapek was appointed to step in as Iger’s replacement, becoming Disney’s CEO on the same day.
In December 2021, Iger finally stepped down from his position on Disney’s board, and retirement loomed on the horizon. During that time, Iger, ever the savvy businessman, considered various ventures with partners before following through and partnering in several of them.
In December 2021, just weeks before he stepped away from his position on Disney’s board following his resignation as CEO, Iger was in talks to consider becoming part-owner of the Phoenix Suns. Then, in May 2022, the former CEO began talks to partner with eBay in the nearly $300 million purchase of the Funko toy company.
But after a tumultuous tenure, Disney’s board removed Bob Chapek from his post, reinstalling veteran CEO Bob Iger at the helm, effective November 20, 2022.
Only days later, Iger found himself tasked with cleaning house at Disney, firing those closest to Chapek, including his former chief of staff, Arthur Bochner, assistant Jackie Hart, and his right-hand man, Kareem Daniel.
During his first term as Disney’s CEO, Iger proved he had a knack for overseeing major acquisitions. He is credited with the successful completion of the following acquisitions by The Walt Disney Company:
Miramax – 1993; $60 million
Capital Cities/ABC/ESPN – 1995; $19 billion
Starwave – 1998; undisclosed amount
Infoseek – 1999; undisclosed amount
Fox Family Worldwide (Freeform) – 2001; $2.9 billion
Hulu – 2009; 30% purchase (increased to full ownership in 2019)
Wideload Games – 2010; undisclosed amount
Tapulous – 2010; undisclosed amount
Playdom – 2010; $563 million
UTV Software Communications – 2011; $297 million
Lucasfilm (Star Wars) – 2012; $4.06 billion
Maker Studios – 2014; $500 million
Sphero – 2014; unknown minority investment
BAM – 2016 & 2017; $2.58 billion total
21st Century Fox – 2019; $71.3 billion
On Wednesday, Disney’s boomerang CEO announced his resignation from the company, though his departure from the Mouse House won’t be immediate. In an interview in September, Iger said that his departure wasn’t too far off, though at the time, he did not give details about the date on which he would step away.
On Wednesday, during an interview at the New York Times Dealbook Conference, Disney’s CEO said that he will “definitely” step down from his role when his current contract expires in 2026. He also talked specifically about the ABC television network, owned by The Walt Disney Company, saying that despite talk of the potential for a sale, ABC is not for sale.
As part of the interview, Bob Iger further said he was “bullish” about the potential for Disney’s Shanghai park, Shanghai Disneyland, as he explained that he expects The Walt Disney Company to expand the park “relatively soon.”
As for his resignation from his role at The Walt Disney Company, Iger’s employer for a combined total of nearly 50 years, Iger says that he will remain at his post, continuing in his current responsibilities as the company’s chief executive officer until the expiration date of his current contract with Disney.
In November 2022, when he was called back to the role of CEO following Disney’s removal of then-CEO Bob Chapek, Iger signed a two-year contract, set to expire in December 2024. But shortly after Disney’s CFO Christine McCarthy announced her departure in June 2023, Disney renewed Iger’s contract, extending his agreement through the end of 2026.
On Wednesday, Iger said he would step down when that contract expires, which is reportedly on December 31, 2026.
An upcoming film in the studios has Disney CEO Bob Iger reaching out to the talent for help.
Disney’s getting back to its roots–or so fans would be led to believe. During The Walt Disney Company’s 2023 fiscal first-quarter earnings call with Wall Street’s finest in February of this year, during which better-than-expected returns were shared with investors and analysts, CEO Bob Iger had a few more surprises up his sleeve.
He began by announcing a massive $5.5 billion cut in spending across the organization, part of which included a major restructuring of The Walt Disney Company’s various divisions. Though Disney’s quarterly results were impressive, Iger couldn’t keep his viewfinder set to only that three-month period at the end of the 2022 calendar year.
The boomerang CEO, who at the time had been back at his post for less than three months, stressed the importance of Disney’s ability to trim its spending drastically in numerous areas, and in addition to Disney’s restructuring, Iger also announced plans for 7,000 layoffs company-wide.
It was no secret that The Walt Disney Company had failed miserably at the box office throughout 2022. Disney’s three film offerings that year–two of which came from Pixar Animation Studios–simply didn’t resonate with many who saw them, and in addition to that, many usual moviegoers simply skipped Disney at the theater in 2022, citing Disney’s “woke ideology.”
Pixar’s Turning Red debuted in March on Disney+, followed by Pixar’s Lightyear in theaters in June, and in November, Disney’s Strange World made its theatrical debut. It was a record-breaking year for Disney at the box office, and not in a good way.
But after the proverbial dust had settled from Bob Iger’s seemingly continual onslaught of bad news during the earnings call, a silver lining seemed to emerge as Iger announced three new films in production that could serve to right the ship of box office flops for the company–but in order to do so, Disney would have to call in the heroes–namely, Woody and Buzz, Anna and Elsa, and Judy Hopps.
Iger announced the return of three fan-favorite film franchises–Pixar’s Toy Story, Disney’s Frozen, and Disney’s Zootopia, each of which had performed well and resonated with fans over the years. Though Iger didn’t use the exact terminology, the announcement came with the clear hope that getting back to Disney’s roots could be what turned the tide for the company at the box office.
Now, however, months after Iger’s initial announcement about the three savior productions at Disney, actor Tim Allen, who voices the action figure space ranger Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, has revealed that CEO Bob Iger recently called on him and Tom Hanks, who voices Sheriff Woody in the same franchise, to share their thoughts about a fifth Toy Story installment.
While details about the new film are scarce, the new film will reportedly be a back-to-basics take centered on Woody and Buzz rather than a spinoff like Pixar’s Lightyear (2022). Perhaps that’s why Disney CEO Bob Iger reached out to Allen and Hanks to get their take on a fifth film
Before Thanksgiving, Tim Allen appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, during which he talked about Toy Story 5, saying that Iger chose to “reach out” to him and Tom Hanks as well.
“Bob Iger, head of Disney, said [the film] was on and actually said it was going to happen,” Allen said. “They have reached out to Tom and I to reprise the roles. They’re not saying anything about it. You wonder if four was too many. Is five going to be too much?”
“According to the scuttlebutt,” he continued, “the writer that’s doing it wrote one of the better ones and said, ‘If I didn’t get this right, I wouldn’t do it.’ It could be a very, very interesting way to reunite it.”
Though the storyline for Toy Story 5 has yet to be revealed, one thing is certain: Pixar absolutely needs a hit, and if any of the studio’s franchises can pull it off, it’s Toy Story, Pixar’s first and oldest franchise, the initial installment for which debuted in 1995, with sequel installments debuting in 1999, 2010, and 2019.
Following Pixar’s major flop in June 2022 with Lightyear, the studio is in desperate need of a home run.
In June 2023, Elemental debuted at the box office, setting records as Pixar’s worst box office debut in history. But several weeks following its theatrical release, Elemental began to take off, surprising even the head of Pixar Animation Studios–Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter, who admitted they simply didn’t know why the film started low and then saw an exponential boom at the box office.
But that boom was enough to convince Pixar execs that it’s time to return to the studio’s roots.
Docter said that PIXAR’s classic stories, including Toy Story, are often anchored on “ideas that we all carried around as kids.” That focus shifted in films like Elemental, and now, the studio feels that it needs to take a closer look at the stories it’s creating and “double down on what allowed [them] to speak to audiences” in the first place, per Docter.
“I always felt that Elemental would speak to a lot of people, and I’m so happy it has,” Docter said. “But we have also taken another look at the projects we’re working on now. What are the kinds of films we want to be making? I really think I want to double down on what allowed us to speak to audiences, to begin with.”
No release date has been announced for the fifth Toy Story film, but diehard Woody and Buzz fans–this writer included–are thrilled that the newest story in the franchise will get back to where it all began–the unlikely friendship between a pull-string cowboy doll and a space ranger action figure. “Dieharder” Toy Story fans take it one step further, hoping that the fifth film will undo the awful tragedy that was the story of Toy Story 4 (2019).
Only time will tell if we “dieharders” will be so lucky.
Disney suddenly fired hundreds of employees working in the company’s Beijing, China, office earlier this year, and now investors know why.
In March 2023, hundreds of Disney employees working in China were given the boot, but because the move came several weeks after The Walt Disney Company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings call, during which CEO Bob Iger divulged his plans for a massive $5.5 billion cost-cutting initiative, the layoffs didn’t raise many eyebrows.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Disney laid off more than 300 employees in the capital city of Beijing. The employees affected were involved in Disney’s streaming service. At the time, the layoffs were perceived as part of Disney’s forecasted $5.5 billion cost-cutting initiative and seen as more of CEO Bob Iger’s plan to cut costs by slashing more than 7,000 jobs within The Walt Disney Company.
During the earnings call, the need for such drastic changes within the company was so dire that the veteran CEO promised they would go into effect immediately. Disney’s President of Parks, Experiences, and Products, Josh D’Amaro, said the changes would be felt across the entire company, including at Disney’s U.S. theme park resorts.
Now, however, The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney dismissed hundreds of employees in its Beijing office as a way of saving face during an upcoming meeting with U.S. Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), who chairs a committee focused on the United States’ competition with China. The committee is also very interested in data privacy as it relates to that relationship.
Per The New York Post, Gallagher has been a “tenacious critic” as it pertains to data security and China’s potential access to American consumer data. The group of Disney employees that were excused had access to some of that data, according to those close to the situation, and Disney’s attorneys had reportedly been vocal about concerns about that access, saying it “could be seen as a potential red flag by the committee.”
Disney, however, denies that the layoffs were related to the meeting planned between CEO Bob Iger and Rep. Gallagher and maintains that the changes were part of Disney’s cost-cutting initiative, first outlined in the February earnings call.
According to a representative for The Walt Disney Company, “Disney’s decision to restructure and consolidate these operations was not motivated by data security vulnerability concerns.”
