After Contract Renewal, Disney CEO Bob Chapek Proves His Wishes Can Come True As He Manages The Ship

Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek has been lauded multiple quarters in 2020 for leading the company deftly in eradicating Covid after taking over from Bob Iger earlier that pivotal year.

After a year-and-a-half full of bouquets, Disney’s stock prices fell even more shocking, partly reflecting questions about the future of the seventh person to become CEO of the company in its 99-year history. . Publicly clashed with Scarlett Johansson for her release avi windowIt was dismissed with minimal explanation by highly respected CEO Peter Rice, and by his own admission the company’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law was overshadowed.

Today, however, Chapek received a three-year contract renewal from the Disney Board of Directors. The long-awaited renewal announcement came after a two-day council meeting. On Wednesday, the newly restored chef will return to style by leading a Disney Wish christening ceremony in Port Canaveral, FL. The ship will set sail for the first time on 14 July.

Developed and built by Chapek management of the company’s theme parks and resorts arm, Wish is the first new cruise ship to join the fleet in the past decade. Includes themed eateries and other extensions of the company’s mighty Marvel; Frozen Y Star wars Brands, plus the “1923” area dedicated to the year the company was founded. “This is really her baby,” said Deadline, a former colleague of Chapek’s. “Welcoming this ship on the company’s 100th anniversary will be your chance to rekindle the narrative. Parks, cruise ships: it was a real specialty. He feels comfortable here.”

Prior to the contract renewal, President Susan Arnold issued a statement reaffirming the board’s trust in Chapek shortly after Rice was fired. As a rule, the revocation of a top manager does not allow such a ban, but a period of discomfort followed. The council met behind closed doors, but had a full page of topics to cover, from senior executive to politics to broadcasting.

“If the board has to support him publicly, that means something is wrong,” a Wall Streeter said of Arnold, who said the company’s post-pandemic strength “reaffirms Bob’s leadership and vision.” The future of the company. At this critical time of growth and business transformation, we stand ready to keep Disney on the path it is today, and Bob and his leadership team have the Board’s support and trust.

No one can dispute that Chapek’s rise to the top, a surprise for Hollywood and Wall Street, came at a painful time in February 2020, when the pandemic was about to shut down global trade. The Indiana resident, who began her career in advertising and has also toured extensively in consumer products and executive home entertainment roles, has signed a three-year contract that will expire in February 2023.

“Of course the weather was bad and the industry was flowing and the question was, can it move forward? Ideally, it requires a politician, a manager, and a creative person,” Wall Streeter said. But “Bob doesn’t have a natural constituency. People do not know him on the street. When he was named CEO, investors didn’t know him, and then an epidemic prevented him from going out and meeting people. So it is still somewhat unknown. I don’t know who is protecting him.”

A legal dispute with Johansson (resolved a few weeks after it came out) and Florida’s so-called “No Parental Rights in Education” bill (opponents of “Gay Speaking”) discredited him. Leader. Disney became Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ purse and lost the state’s Special Economic Zone after Chapek’s speech at its annual meeting in March, but not until many employees were silenced by his public silence.

“As an investor, I have my own opinions, and that doesn’t concern me,” the Wall Street veteran said. “But that, of course, was a big problem internally. As CEO at a creative company, your first job is to motivate and energize people. The fact that the company’s entertainment chief wasn’t given the usual production contract gift or allowed to announce his own departure also shattered Rice’s point of view. angered many employees, followed by a long period of speculation that Rice, a longtime Fox lawmaker who joined Disney after Disney bought a majority stake in 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion, could be a legitimate candidate for CEO.

Disney recently awarded expensive broadcast rights to cricket, which is hugely popular in India, in exchange for blocking linear rights. Given continued demand for the company, which will hit between 230 million and 260 million global subscribers in May by the end of Disney+ fiscal 2024, the company needs to lower that estimate. While Wall Street has recently slashed subscriber base as the top metric, any reduction in a broadcast race where the bar is rising is against the norm. “It’s really a dilemma,” said the former Disney broadcast executive. “If you reduce the number, does the street act like Netflix?” But if you don’t meet your expectations and you don’t reach your goal in two years, the pain can get worse.”

light yearLast movie in Georgia Toy Story The franchise turned out to be a disappointment. On the bright side, Shanghai Disneyland will reopen amid the mighty boom in parks.

Stock was uncertain. After swimming with the fraction on the normal trading day, he added the fraction to the contract news in after-hours trading. Still, its current price is $96.59. That’s a low of $92 a year, and about half of the $188 that traded at a 52-week high last fall.

Disney will announce its financial third-quarter results in August, with the company’s shareholders meeting scheduled for March. Unlike other large media groups, Disney is not a controlled company with large positions in family trusts and insiders. The 2004 meeting remains a turning point for the company and marks the beginning of the end for former CEO Michael Eisner. Activist shareholder Roy Disney worked with other shareholders to remove Eisner from the board of directors. He resigned as CEO six months later.

Despite having a new contract, Chapek may not visit for the entire term if he has any dissatisfaction with the ship.

Although filmmaker Abigail Disney, Roy’s daughter and Walt’s niece, opposed Chapek’s latest salary, a Wall Street source like Eisner said: “I haven’t heard any rumors that anyone is actively campaigning against him.” package. Disney’s successor is “doing its job. It’s not structured enough to make a big mistake. It just wasn’t smooth. ”