CNBC on Chapek & Iger’s falling out

[gottalovepluto]

And a whole lot of other stuff…


Chapek and Iger had a falling out — and the rift looms over Disney's future

 

[Jwaire]

Not shocked at all.

 

[OKW Lover]

And a whole lot of other stuff…


Chapek and Iger had a falling out — and the rift looms over Disney's future

Now if only the Board and Chapek would have a falling out.

 

[lockets]

Now if only the Board and Chapek would have a falling out.

from article: “Chapek’s contract is up at the end of February 2023.”

 

[OKW Lover]

from article: “Chapek’s contract is up at the end of February 2023.”

Imagine how much more damage he can do by then

 

[Morieris]

The largest entertainment company in the world elevated a man who essentially isn't a "culture fit" to CEO while low-wage workers have to be perfect fits to get paid 15.02$ an hour.


Wow I hate the culture of the working world.

 

[PCFriar80]

The end is near. There's a real image problem going down here on multiple fronts. No need to get in to the weeds. Full disclosure, I'm DVC and long on the stock, but this has been tough to live through under his reign. And, selfless plug....Go Friars! Not sure about KU, but we'll see!

 

[Morieris]

Late last year, just weeks before his departure as executive chairman, Iger threw himself a going-away party, inviting more than 50 people at his house in Brentwood, a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood. He spoke at length about his time at Disney in front of the crowd. Chapek attended, but there was little interaction between the two men, according to people who attended the party.

Chapek skipped out on (D23?) where everyone disliked him to go to a party where the guest of honor disliked him too.

Ouch.

 

[middlechild]

Take the emotion out of it. Chapek says 230+ million subscribers to Disney+. They are indeed on their way to meeting that goal. Revenue is up, profit is up. One digital world is in the works. Turning TWDC into a technology company, instead of entertainment. Using metrics, hard data, to decide Disney+ first or theaters may be the best call considering the floundering of AMC and other movie chains. Parks are full, and continue to be. Building new DVC units does not sound like the market is collapsing for DVC does it? I wonder what Genie and Disney+ combined into one account would give for park experience and or targeted ads and or alerts on merchandise for sale. Feb 2023 is too soon to pull the rug out from under him, when he stated goals in 2024. I bet he stays, and for some time to come as well - depending a lot on the stock price and overall GAAP performance. Can he manage Wall Street expectations per quarter, and perform each quarter as Iger did?

 

[Morieris]

Take the emotion out of it. Chapek says 230+ million subscribers to Disney+. They are indeed on their way to meeting that goal. Revenue is up, profit is up. One digital world is in the works. Turning TWDC into a technology company, instead of entertainment. Using metrics, hard data, to decide Disney+ first or theaters may be the best call considering the floundering of AMC and other movie chains. Parks are full, and continue to be. Building new DVC units does not sound like the market is collapsing for DVC does it? I wonder what Genie and Disney+ combined into one account would give for park experience and or targeted ads and or alerts on merchandise for sale. Feb 2023 is too soon to pull the rug out from under him, when he stated goals in 2024. I bet he stays, and for some time to come as well - depending a lot on the stock price and overall GAAP performance. Can he manage Wall Street expectations per quarter, and perform each quarter as Iger did?

I'm fairly excited about that - I've talked with people among their tech-related enterprises about the direction they're moving in and they're quite pumped.

(No, this was not about Parks tech, or reservation systems...sorry).

Besides them shunting Pixar originals to D+ and the low morale of the artists, I haven't seen anyone upset that the tech side is a thing. Maybe the lack of consistent content ala Netflix, but I'm under the impression D+ has better content.

I also can't speak to the 'They're ruining the magic of the parks!' as someone who hasn't been in 9 years, but I do think there's away to make Disney a tech company while not making Parks people angry.

 

[WGCFV]

Interesting read, and not very surprising, for sure different approach between the 2 leaders. I will say, guest experience has been placed well below focus on profits. There is a a balance between the 2, but way too far on the balance sheet side these days. Will backfire on Chapek, as customer is the King. The customer right now is clearly not happy.

 

[pens4821]

I think people just don’t realize how much the parks were changing before he took over. We’ve gone in early 14,16,19, and now 22. A lot of things changed from 14 to 19 for the worse for the park goer. Yes, it just keeps getting worse, but I don’t think that a different CEO wouldn’t be finding a way to increase profits and nickel and dime where they can. Wasn’t it before chapek that they started cutting hours and EMH and adding early morning and after hours events for pay (I’m not being a smartass, I’m generally curious)?

Don’t forget, the parks were closed (DL for much longer), and they are trying to make up for it. Just like everything else you do right now, it’s much more expensive. Every restaurant you go to has upped the prices.

Once again, I’m not sticking up for him because frankly I’m not that involved in all the things that he’s done/not. But I just truly think he’s being made a scapegoat when no matter who was in charge the last couple years would be making changes people wouldn’t be happy with.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

I think people just don’t realize how much the parks were changing before he took over. We’ve gone in early 14,16,19, and now 22. A lot of things changed from 14 to 19 for the worse for the park goer. Yes, it just keeps getting worse, but I don’t think that a different CEO wouldn’t be finding a way to increase profits and nickel and dime where they can. Wasn’t it before chapek that they started cutting hours and EMH and adding early morning and after hours events for pay (I’m not being a smartass, I’m generally curious)?

From my memory, the significant hours cutbacks started with covid (so, around the time of the transition in leadership). It seems recently, Disney has been adding back enough park hours to get the hours close to what they were before. The big difference now is that they only give you a few weeks advance notice of the additional hours, while in the past in seems like we knew that information much farther in advance. The other big change in park hours is the extra magic time. Now its the morning half hour any park system where in the past, it was more time, albeit at one park a day. Overall, it seems the total hours available at the parks is getting closer to where it was a few years ago, but its still a little less and the extra magic hours are focussed more on the morning (with evening bonus hours very limited and only for guests staying at deluxe resorts)

 

[umichigan10]

From my memory, the significant hours cutbacks started with covid (so, around the time of the transition in leadership). It seems recently, Disney has been adding back enough park hours to get the hours close to what they were before. The big difference now is that they only give you a few weeks advance notice of the additional hours, while in the past in seems like we knew that information much farther in advance. The other big change in park hours is the extra magic time. Now its the morning half hour any park system where in the past, it was more time, albeit at one park a day. Overall, it seems the total hours available at the parks is getting closer to where it was a few years ago, but its still a little less and the extra magic hours are focussed more on the morning (with evening bonus hours very limited and only for guests staying at deluxe resorts)

they were cutting back hours in 2018 and 2019 or around there and adding the paid after hours events. That was 100% on igers watch. The cutting and maybe even elimination of extra magic hours was pretty much done under the iger regime. I can’t stand chapek, and I don’t think he’s a good person to be quite honest. But he gets scapegoated for things without other people, whether it be iger or d’amaro, taking any flack

 

[xipotec]

shor

Take the emotion out of it. Chapek says 230+ million subscribers to Disney+. They are indeed on their way to meeting that goal. Revenue is up, profit is up. One digital world is in the works. Turning TWDC into a technology company, instead of entertainment. Using metrics, hard data, to decide Disney+ first or theaters may be the best call considering the floundering of AMC and other movie chains. Parks are full, and continue to be. Building new DVC units does not sound like the market is collapsing for DVC does it? I wonder what Genie and Disney+ combined into one account would give for park experience and or targeted ads and or alerts on merchandise for sale. Feb 2023 is too soon to pull the rug out from under him, when he stated goals in 2024. I bet he stays, and for some time to come as well - depending a lot on the stock price and overall GAAP performance. Can he manage Wall Street expectations per quarter, and perform each quarter as Iger did?

Short term stock goals do not make a legacy company……

 

[newdeal]

I had been complaining about nickel and dimeing well before Chapek but he moved in and immediately kicked it in to overdrive to the point where even considering going back to the parks just makes me angry. Genie+ is bad but getting rid of the magical express is the largest irritation to me.

 

[vincep]

Iger and Chapek have been miserable for Disney but it doesn't matter. The die hard fans hate it but the masses love it and that's what matters. The list goes on and on of how they've ruined the experience for many of us but the parks and hotels have been packed, they're making money on Genie+and charging for individual rides and they keep building uglier and uglier buildings completely against the Disney aesthetic(the new Polynesian DVC design is catastrophic for the Seven Seas Lagoon. As Shakespeare said kill all the architects) but the majority of people love it anyway.
It's heartbreaking that they've taken this away from us, a very important part of our lives, but there is nothing to be done.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times...Bob C. tells you directly what he wants for Disney and the fan base is upset (understandably) but they give Bob C. no credit for his honesty. At least Bob C. tells us to our faces that Disney is going to deep dive for our wallets. Bob I. never had the courage to be honest with us about that. Bob I. was too busy schmoozing with the Hollywood insiders.

I only fear Josh D. is going to be Bob I. on steroids because folks seemingly fawn over Josh D. I hope I'm wrong.

Also, now we know when (approximately) Bob C. is signing his contract extension, in about 6-9 months.

Sincerely, the unofficial Bob Chapek Apologist.

 

[DduzDis]

So... is this the count down to Bob C being replaced or signing a new contract? My hope is they get a customer friendly visionary with a business sense to maintain profits while bringing back the Disney magical customer experience. There must be that one 'diamond in the rough' within the TWDC ranks... I fear this may be a pipe dream and we are stuck with Cheapek...

 

[Dis Dragon]

They need a creative CEO, not a business minded one. But therein lies the issue, when the board is mostly concerned with returns it's difficult to make that change.

The takeover situation in the early 80's gave a unique situation to bring in Eisner and he had his share of issues with his tenure, but he wasn't afraid to take creative risks, and it paid off to the benefit of the company he left behind him. It was unfortunate that he basically purged the creative leaders in the company because of ego- Iger was definitely more Frank Wells than Eisner. And Chapek is a far cry from either.