Disney’s stock has had its fair share of ups and downs in the recent past. Its CEO Bob Iger has had a roller coaster comeback to the company. Some of the problems he’s faced, and tried to solve, are of his own making though.
Bob Iger spent 15 years building a solid brand as the CEO of the company from 2005 to 2020. During his stint, he acquired Marvel, Pixar, Fox, and Lucasfilm.
In 2020, he handed over the reigns to his successor Bob Chapek. As Disney tried to realign its mission in accordance with the in fashion woke trend, the new CEO took on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, opposing the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.
This, combined with Covid19, became too big a problem for the company to deal with. And they brought back Bob Iger to regain the lost glory.
A controversial comeback
Since his return, Bob has had to deal with a lot of issues. The company spent a lot of money to grow Disney+ and Hulu, which had a negative impact on the quality of its movies. Its movies were also criticized for being overly woke.
There were job cuts to save costs in order to rescue the struggling Box Office and TV revenues. There was an activist investor attack when billionaire Nelson Peltz tried to get seats on the board. Bob Iger thwarted him.
Dealing with the Florida governor became a headache as the company threatened the State by announcing withdrawal of its future investment plans. The spat was ugly.
But Bob Iger has recovered from all of this. At least as the CEO of the company, he is done with all the unnecessary problems. Disney reached a settlement with Gov. DeSantis earlier this year. Nelson Peltz was forced to sell off his Disney stake. And most importantly, the company finally realized it had gone too far with the wokeness.
To give the company a bit more breathing space, Bob’s contract was also renewed for another 2 years.
Has the company learned its lesson?
With the recent mini victories, one would think the company would have learned its lesson. But it only seems the problems have moved from within the company to outside the company.
Bob Iger decided to buy a majority stake in the Angel City FC women’s soccer team. He may have had to trim down on the wokeness in the company’s products, but he certainly has no intention to stop pursuing his goals outside the company. The acquisition could well be a move in that direction.
Disney heiress threatens Biden
In another move that could bring unnecessary political attention to the company, heiress Abigail Disney threatened to stop funding the Democrat party if Biden continued to pursue the elections.
I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high.
Abigail Disney
Just for context, Disney received great support from Democrats once it took a stand against the Republican Governor DeSantis. Florida is primarily a Republican state. So the democrats were quite happy to be on the right side of Disney. The party’s approval ratings went up during that time as it supported Disney in its battle against the Governor.
That rating came at a price as the Democrats are now finding out. If Disney does not get its way, will it be able to keep the political issues away from the inner workings of its company? Judging by the fact that Disney is one of the top 5 most politically polarised companies in the country, that is unlikely.
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