Iger Out
In a bolt from the blue, Bob Iger has quit as the famous CEO of Disney. The company’s stock price increased five-fold during his 15-year tenure, but there’s no time to dwell. How will shares fare under Bob Chapek, the new most powerful man in Hollywood?
The reason Disney lay claim last year to both a record stock price and a record number of box office blockbusters, is because of Bob Iger. Investors will remember him for changing the media landscape by acquiring studios like Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, and Fox. He expanded the company’s Chinese presence by opening a mega-park in Shanghai and most recently pioneered Disney+, the streaming service rattling Netflix.
Iger has booked his place in the history books. However, investors are buying and selling the future, not the past. A man by the name of Bob Chapek now occupies the most coveted job in all of entertainment, and new leadership always brings change!
Iger has reached from within for Chapek, loyal to the Mouse House for over 27 years with his most recent role being to spearhead the company’s theme parks and consumer products business. That may offer investors clues into how Disney intends to position itself going forward. Remember, it’s content slate in the movie biz is running dry.
Iger will fall back into a creative role, shadowing Chapek for the rest of this year. Then, he’s on his own, and chief executives of Disney don’t have a high churn rate. This guy could hold the keys to the Magic Kingdom for many years to come.
