Bob Iger Re-Takes Control at Disney, According to Report

by Ray Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 13, 2020

Is Bob Iger back at the helm of Disney? The New York Times is reporting that Iger, executive chairman, effectively has taken back control of The Walt Disney Company from Bob Chapek, the company’s CEO.

Specifically, the Times has reported:

     And now, Mr. Iger has effectively returned to running the company. After a few weeks of letting Mr. Chapek take charge, Mr. Iger smoothly reasserted control, BlueJeans video call by BlueJeans video call. (Disney does not use Zoom for its meetings for security reasons.)

     The new, nominal chief executive is referred to, almost kindergarten style, as “Bob C,” while Mr. Iger is still just “Bob.” And his title is “executive chairman” — emphasis on the first word.

The article spells out the enormous uncertainties that Disney faces given the coronavirus outbreak, and that the company is “losing as much as $30 million or more a day.”

According to the report, Iger had to re-take control of the company:

     In an emergency like this, Mr. Iger said, he had no choice but to abandon his plan to pull back.

     “A crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, would necessarily result in my actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it, particularly since I ran the company for 15 years!” he said in his email.

Beyond the current crisis, it also was noted that Iger is looking at what the company will look like and how it will operate after the crisis, including how to get people back in the Disney parks, and the evaluation of Mr. Chapek’s work will take into consideration the hand he was dealt at the start.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solution (now available at a deep discount) and the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.