Bob Iger, who used to be CEO of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) and is CEO again, has been hammered by the stock market as his every effort to turn around the company has failed. Disney’s troubles caught the eye of Nelson Peltz, the famous raider, who has bought into Disney’s stock twice. The second time, he demanded representation on the board. He has been joined by former Marvel Entertainment executive Ike Perlmutter, which strengthens the raider’s grip.
Disney’s Troubles
Iger was supposed to fix Disney’s streaming business, mostly Disney+. From late November 2019, it grew rapidly. However, that largely was because it was priced every month near the bottom of the industry. That helped to pull in customers, but as subscriber numbers rose to almost 160 million, Disney lost billions of dollars. Iger has raised the price. But that will cause what the industry calls churn, making it harder for him to keep his subscriber base.
Iger also thought the library from Disney, Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar would be enough to hold Disney+ customers. This has not been the case. And the larger competitors, Amazon and Netflix, still dominate the industry.
Iger has admitted that some of his legacy businesses, put together when he was CEO for the first time, no longer have high valuations. ESPN, once a cash machine, has lost that label. Fewer cable companies want to pay Disney a large premium to carry it as one of their channels. Ironically, one of the reasons ESPN is in trouble is that many sports are available on streaming services.
ABC is another legacy business. Shrinking numbers of people watch the old TV channels: ABC, CBS and NBC.
The only business Iger has to fall back on is Disney’s massive theme parks, which is not enough to please Wall Street.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Perlmutter said, “As someone with a large economic interest in Disney’s success, I can no longer watch the business underachieve its great potential.” Iger’s options have run out.
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