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annoyingrelative t1_ixbd5c1 wrote

Chapek was supposed to introduce Elton John last night, but cancelled during the afternoon.

Per the Article, news of the firing spread among the crowd just before it started, and Chapek's top lieutenant, Kareem Daniel left before the show began

Chapek famously screwed up the "Dont Say Gay" Florida fight with DeSantis, and implied Adults/Parents don't watch the Animated shows and movies on Disney+, they prefer Live action movies.

Chapek was a retail guy, not a good Parks guy. He kept cutting costs while raising prices and limiting passes. He was one of the most unpopular CEOs in their history, his firing has been celebrated on several Disney fan YouTube channels, videos were made minutes after the news dropped.

Robert Iger is a popular guy and rightly celebrated by Disney fans, but this is mostly a huge repudiation of Bob Chapek

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DeckardPain t1_ixblcaz wrote

Will be interesting to see if they revert anything Chapek did, like the limitations on the passes, or if they’ll see it as more revenue and keep it as is. My bet is the latter of the two.

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laststance t1_ixbnvj7 wrote

Doubt it, if you listen to Disney's investor calls they love that they're getting more spending per park guest while also having the highest park attendant numbers in a long time.

Chapek became CEO due to his ability to raise park prices and increase Disney's books for quite a while. He actually made those increases while under Iger. So Iger's run and as CEO and increased profits/books were in large part due to Chapek. It's why the board voted Chapek as CEO instead of the person Iger groomed.

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MartinRaccoon t1_ixbv53d wrote

The guy who Iger groomed, Tom Skaggs, just disappeared one day. I always wondered what happened there

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throwaway12junk t1_ixbz1rv wrote

Staggs has claimed he couldn't get the Board to guarantee the position of CEO in writing, so he left not wanting to face the possibility of being passed over.

Personally, I think Staggs saw opportunities elsewhere and weighed his choices. Currently he's the owner of an $2 billion investment fund, so he's certainly doing well for himself.

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DisneyDreams7 t1_ixcmktr wrote

Kevin Mayer a.k.a. Buzz Lightyear who was the other heir to be CEO, is now the CEO of TikTok. So Ex-Disney CEOs seem to find lots of success

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3758232352 t1_ixdlicl wrote

No he’s not. Mayer was CEO of TikTok for mere months before stepping down. Mayer and Staggs run the fund mentioned above together, and Mayer is also advising WB/Discovery.

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ObiTate t1_ixf10l4 wrote

> So Ex-Disney CEOs seem to find lots of success

Tell that to Iger

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thethurstonhowell t1_ixcea2m wrote

The board tried to get him to take the CEO role before they renewed Chapek’s contract over the summer and he declined. As reported by the NYT.

Disney could easily afford to buy Candle Media to bring Skaggs and Mayer back into the fold.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/business/media/disney-bob-iger.html

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3758232352 t1_ixdm30m wrote

I’d bet Iger holds off on buying Candle Media for a little bit, because they’re almost certainly going to acquire more production companies in the next year.

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thethurstonhowell t1_ixdo1dx wrote

Unless he’s realized he hates retirement and is gonna die there, he needs an actual succession plan this time and he’s only got 2 years to do it.

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3758232352 t1_ixdubbe wrote

Definitely. Which is why you bring back Mayer and Staggs IMO. Talk it out, one of them can be CEO and the other COO. Pay them both well, and give them the areas they want.

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thethurstonhowell t1_ixdvb1m wrote

They’re going to want it to be via an acquisition though. They’ve got a good thing going and aren’t going to walk away from it.

NYT also reported this is why they said no over the summer.

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preppytarg t1_ixco2dr wrote

> It's why the board voted Chapek as CEO instead of the person Iger groomed.

I mean all these articles are saying Iger picked Chapek...

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Allassnofakes t1_ixc5khm wrote

Coke introduces new coke, everyone hates it, brings back coke classic no one questions fundamental flaws in the classic.

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MexusRex t1_ixg50b5 wrote

Same with Reddit and Ellen Pao/Steve Huffman

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thenoblitt t1_ixbow0v wrote

He's already made changes on the Disney plus side

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Raptorman_Mayho t1_ixc7hpb wrote

Lilly the latter as in fucking all that will take a lot of effort and Igor should only be temporary (as he was supposed to retire) so I guess it'll just be 'don't let anything get worse and actually shape a decent replacement'

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low-ki199999 t1_ixcrf1f wrote

Do not expect DisneyWorld to suddenly become affordable. There’s a reason that youd rather go to Disney than Six Flags, and a big part of that has to do with the prices being so high. People are less likely to fuck around when the ticket cost another mortgage on the house. It’s never been about how much money that can make off the parks, it’s about keeping the “riffraff” out

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Sprinkle_Puff t1_ixbr87l wrote

How did he mess us the “Don’t say gay” fight? Just asking out of curiosity. Not fighting harder, or getting involved at all in the first place?

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MPUtf8Nzvh6kzhKq t1_ixcgadw wrote

>Not fighting harder, or getting involved at all in the first place?

In a way, from a cynical business perspective, both. He needed to either not get involved at all, which would have preserved relations with Florida and conservatives at the cost of angering creatives in the company and progressives more generally, or needed to respond harder, earlier, more publicly, which would have angered Florida and conservatives but preserved relations with creatives and progressives.

Instead he oversaw a response that both did too little, too late to avoid the repercussions of angering creatives and company morale, and too much, when he did do something, to avoid the repercussions of angering Florida and conservative governments.

He managed to take a situation where he was unavoidably going to anger one important group out of two, and chose the response that angered both.

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iamgarron t1_ixbqabi wrote

Its been mentioned in a few pods but I think Iger wanted to fix it so that it isn't a stain on his legacy either. Chapek was his handpicked successor

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Eph_the_Beef t1_ixc3559 wrote

I don't believe that's true. Iger's handpicked successor was passed over for Chapek.

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iamgarron t1_ixcdtho wrote

Tinseltown podcast, as well as Andy Greenwald, Chris Ryan and Bill Simmons (and a bunch of stuff online) have an described him as handpicked successor

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welchplug t1_ixc3e9o wrote

>Chapek was his handpicked successo

nope

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Whites11783 t1_ixceu6a wrote

I mean, “handpicked” in that by the time he retired all the other possible successors (like Staggs) had left, so there was just Chapek.

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