Two things have dogged Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS | DIS Price Prediction). After overstaying his welcome in the first term as chief executive, he returned to the company, insisting he could turn it around after the brief leadership of Bob Chapek. That meant turning Disney back into what it was during his first tenure, which ran from 2005 to 2020. His second shot at running Disney began in November 2022. Since then, financial results have been poor. The stock has underperformed the market by a large margin in the past five years.
His second failure was to abandon one of Disney’s most visible talents. Iger let local station owners Sinclair and Nexstar bully him into dropping Kimmel after comments he made about Charlie Kirk. The firestorm from other entertainment stars and Disney customers forced him to bring Kimmel back. This will be the first line of his obituary: rather than the success of his work from 2005 to 2020, Iger had caved to forces within the Trump administration. It is too early to tell if all Hollywood’s upset talent will do business with Disney in the future. It is also too early to tell if people who canceled Disney+ in protest will resubscribe.
Iger let Disney’s defense of the First Amendment slide, along with Disney’s reputation.
Other Missteps
The legacy of Iger’s first period as CEO was that he built Disney into an entertainment powerhouse. However, he had missteps as well. Among the biggest mistakes Iger made in his first term as CEO was the launch of Disney’s streaming service, Disney+. The service kicked off in November 2019. It had about 500 movies from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. It was too small and had too little content to compete with industry leaders Amazon and Netflix. In February, Forbes estimated the operating loss of Disney+, the proxy for which is Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) segment, at $10.7 billion since the service launched. It has begun to generate a modest amount of money, but is unlikely to recoup its losses in today’s dollars.
Iger’s new turn at the helm has not helped Disney’s overall results one bit. In the most recent period, revenue rose only 2% to $23.7 billion. Income from operations before taxes was up only 4% to $3.2 billion. Without strong results from its Experiences segment, which includes Disney’s parks, the figures would have been much worse. Its revenue rose 8% during the period to $9.1 billion. Its operating income rose 13% to $2.5 billion.
If Iger leaves next year, as he says he will, it will be under a cloud that will not disappear.
Walt Disney Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025-2030
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