Firing Ike Perlmutter “was a necessary step,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told Time magazine

Isaac Perlmutter’s time at Disney was over, and the resignation of the former Marvel Entertainment chairman “was a necessary step to create a more efficient company,” CEO Bob Iger said. He said the decision was not due to Perlmutter’s support from activist investor Nelson Peltz.

“I prefer not to go into detail about it. … There were layoffs specific to the way Marvel was run,” Iger said in the cover interview with Time for the issue of the 100 most influential people.

Perlmutter was fired on March 29 as Disney began cutting 7,000 jobs as part of a massive $5.5 billion workforce overhaul and cost-cutting. Marvel Entertainment – which is separate from Marvel Studios, which is run by Kevin Feige – will be incorporated into other parts of the Disney corporate umbrella. Perlmutter’s oversight included comic book publishing, game licensing, and arena shows.

Perlmutter spoke out a week ago, saying he was fired for pushing for fiscal discipline and supporting Peltz, who had waged a very public proxy battle with Disney for months but withdrew as a board nominee before the annual meeting after Disney announced the streamlining measures.

said Iger Time the decision to remove mother of pearl “would have been made anyway”.

He also addressed Florida, Hulu and Succession.

Comcast has “the right to play their part [of Hulu] in other words, they force us to buy them up. If they decide to do that, we have no choice but to buy them out.” The deadline for the streaming service’s co-owners is early next year.

He affirmed Disney’s value to the state of Florida in turning wetlands into a business that employs more than 75,000 people, is visited by tens of millions each year and is a major tourist destination in the United States and for the state of Florida . Florida creates tremendous value for our company and its employees, as well as for the state of Florida itself. Our only goal in Florida is to continue to create that value for all of these constituencies.”

Florida lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis last year stripped Disney of longtime jurisdiction over a large swath of land in and around Walt Disney World in Orlando — or so they thought. A board of trustees appointed by Disney signed an agreement neutralizing government surveillance in one of its most recent filings. The move was public, but caught the new state-appointed board by surprise when they discovered it. DeSantis vowed to fight back and “win every issue.” The fight began when former CEO Bob Chapek publicly spoke out against a Florida law criticizing Don’t Say Gay, which banned public schools from referring to sexual orientation or gender identity as late as third grade .

said Iger Time His line is open. “If the governor of Florida wants to meet with me to discuss all of this, of course I would be happy to,” he said. “You know, I’m someone who typically respects our elected officials and the responsibilities that they have, and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t.”

Iger returned in November on a two-year contract, replacing Chapek. He promised that the succession would be handled more carefully this time. It gets “more time, more attention, more focus than before. We have always considered this an important decision. But since I’m not here forever and we’ve had some problems over the last few years, it’s getting more attention than it’s gotten in the past.”