Valuetainment - Disney Almost Promoted a CONSERVATIVE CEO - UNTOLD STORY

00:00:00.000 You know, I look at your flywheel very closely, Disney's flywheel,

00:00:03.120 and I remember the first one in 1957.

00:00:05.100 This is Disney's flywheel in 1957.

00:00:06.580 I'm sure you've seen this, right?

00:00:07.740 Oh, 100%.

00:00:08.420 It's a great story, theatrical studios, merchandise licensing, all this stuff.

00:00:12.740 Then if you go to 12 years later, this is the flywheel.

00:00:15.920 Get bigger, add another park, et cetera, et cetera.

00:00:18.100 Then bring it to the flywheel today, and if you zoom in, you guys are a behemoth.

00:00:24.400 You're a small country is what you are, right?

00:00:26.420 And the companies that you own, if an average person knew, they wouldn't believe the companies that you own, right?

00:00:33.660 Do you know a man named Al Weiss?

00:00:35.740 Yeah.

00:00:36.140 Okay.

00:00:36.840 So Al Weiss was a heavyweight at Disney.

00:00:40.400 And maybe if you can share with the audience who Al Weiss was because you know him better than I do.

00:00:44.200 Yeah.

00:00:44.880 Al was a legend.

00:00:48.620 He spent a lot of years in parks and experiences.

00:00:52.680 Well, we call it parks and experiences in parks.

00:00:55.260 and he was a legend in Orlando, headed up operations for the parks

00:01:00.940 and very well respected.

00:01:03.500 And he left the company, I believe, maybe about 10 years ago

00:01:07.420 and is a prominent citizen in Orlando advocating for hospitals

00:01:12.100 and things like that.

00:01:12.940 So I do know Al very well.

00:01:14.580 Was there any rumors ever of him becoming a CEO?

00:01:17.300 Because I talked to a few people that said there were some conversations

00:01:19.780 that he may have become the eventual CEO.

00:01:22.180 I don't know, because that's at a time before when he, that might have been the case, I don't know, at a time before I had any.

00:01:29.520 Makes sense, because it would have been like your 15th year, and you were like, I got it.

00:01:33.340 So the reason why I'm asking this question is because Al Weiss, based on some of the folks I spoke to, insiders, was he was offered to be the CEO of Disney, at least seeing if he had any interest, but he didn't want to do it because he didn't want to move to L.A.

00:01:46.140 Because he was in Orlando, and his job, he didn't want to leave Orlando with his family.

00:01:50.200 Well, one thing was with Al that the average person doesn't know.

00:01:53.460 I think the fans need to know this.

00:01:55.220 This guy was a massive conservative.

00:01:57.860 He was a Christian guy.

00:01:59.420 He was a leader in the company.

00:02:01.620 He created an organization called Vision 360, okay?

00:02:05.300 And he made an argument at one point,

00:02:06.640 Disney cruise ships can't be as profitable without gambling and casino.

00:02:10.540 He ended up being right with the argument that he made that we don't need to do that.

00:02:14.320 And then he joined Disney 72, stayed there for, you know, 39 years.

00:02:18.080 and now Vision 360 is a national multi-denominational Christian church planting organization

00:02:24.300 based out of Florida.

00:02:25.840 Founding, it was established in 2004, and he does what he does.

00:02:28.240 So a question for you, could a conservative man, if a guy like Al Weiss would have become

00:02:36.340 the CEO who is an operator, he gets the job done as well.

00:02:40.680 Let's say he takes the job instead of Iger, let's just say, even let you say that speculation

00:02:44.520 is out there.

00:02:45.060 and Disney doesn't make the massive hiccup of going and doing the woke stuff,

00:02:51.260 do you think Disney would have the same valuation it has today?

00:02:54.600 Oh, gosh, there's a whole bunch of hypotheticals in there.

00:02:57.660 I like hypotheticals.

00:02:58.840 Yeah, I could say you layered about three.

00:03:01.560 If, if, if, if, it's hard to say.

00:03:04.760 Look, Al's a good guy, you know, and let's be honest.

00:03:09.660 West Coast Disney, East Coast Disney, different animals.

00:03:13.600 You're right.

00:03:13.960 West Coast governor, East Coast governor, different animals.

00:03:18.200 You are trying to please, one is trying to please,

00:03:22.140 a lot of different masters when you're CEO of Disney.

00:03:25.740 And I can attest to the fact that it's very, very difficult.

00:03:30.360 I have my own opinions where the company should be on these matters.

00:03:34.840 I'm sure Josh DeMauro has his opinions.

00:03:37.100 I'm sure Bob Iger had his opinions.

00:03:39.300 I'm sure Michael Eisner, well, this is before all this kind of really blew up.

00:03:43.140 But suffice it to say that oftentimes when someone gets up in front of a crowd

00:03:49.360 and makes a statement for the company, he's making or she is making a statement for the company.

00:03:56.140 They may have their own points of view that may match up with that or may not match up with that.

00:04:00.700 But, you know, that's part of the job.

00:04:02.540 Do you think this is one of the five big screw-ups the last six years?

00:04:05.980 Could this be ranked as one of the big six screw-ups?

00:04:08.660 Yeah.

00:04:09.820 Well, I know what I think was number one.

00:04:11.240 Well, the number one we already addressed.

00:04:14.100 Right.

00:04:14.660 We went through it.

00:04:15.340 Do you think this is a top three matter?

00:04:17.680 I think the company unnecessarily put itself into a fire that it didn't have to.

00:04:22.720 You don't need to touch that.

00:04:24.140 Why even touch that?

00:04:25.020 Like there are certain things I don't even want to put the pressure on you.

00:04:28.580 Nobody should even ask you, hey, Bob, are you a Republican or Democrat?

00:04:31.960 It's none of my flipping business.

00:04:33.300 Go make good cartoons.

00:04:34.200 Go make a good product.

00:04:35.260 Can you type in Disney's stock?

00:04:37.940 Just go to Disney's stock.

00:04:39.320 and this is the last thing

00:04:41.660 I'll stay on this

00:04:42.220 and then I'm going to go

00:04:42.820 go max

00:04:43.760 if you can go to max

00:04:44.940 max

00:04:45.420 yeah

00:04:45.780 if you go to max

00:04:47.160 it goes

00:04:48.460 not that far

00:04:49.540 it goes to 1985

00:04:50.720 okay

00:04:51.920 so you know all I'm sharing with you

00:04:53.660 if you go from 85

00:04:55.280 to 2019

00:04:56.320 look how great you did 1.00

00:04:58.480 without any LGBTQ 1.00

00:04:59.720 characters in cartoons 1.00

00:05:01.560 you guys crushed it

00:05:03.320 and then what do you do

00:05:04.820 your valuation today

00:05:06.460 is the same as it was in 2014

00:05:08.900 How does that make any sense?

00:05:10.660 I think there's a lot of independent variables that lead to that dependent variable,

00:05:15.680 and the one you point out is one.

00:05:17.900 What did you add?

00:05:18.440 Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

00:05:20.620 Cable television.

00:05:22.140 We're the gods of cable television for a long period of time.

00:05:25.840 It became, you know, cable cord cutting.

00:05:28.700 That became sort of irrelevant.

00:05:31.920 You know, that happened.

00:05:33.840 And that's...

00:05:34.180 You guys made a very good move to remove from Netflix.

00:05:36.880 Disney used to be on Netflix, right?

00:05:38.140 and you put it on Disney.

00:05:39.100 That was a massive valuation play.

00:05:40.540 I thought it was a brilliant move.

00:05:42.020 And I don't know who made that decision.

00:05:43.900 Whoever did, brilliant flipping move for valuation.

00:05:46.800 You're bigger than everybody.

00:05:47.820 Yeah, we can have our own audience.

00:05:49.180 So guess what I'm forced to do?

00:05:50.140 I have Disney as well.

00:05:51.000 Right.

00:05:51.580 Right?

00:05:51.840 So I think there were, don't you guys own Hulu?

00:05:54.060 Isn't Hulu also yours?

00:05:56.060 Yeah.

00:05:56.780 Yeah, but it's being de-emphasized.

00:05:59.360 It's being de-emphasized.

00:06:01.100 Oh, I think Hulu is a massive upside.

00:06:03.720 Yeah.

00:06:04.320 It's being de-emphasized?

00:06:05.680 Yeah.

00:06:06.000 What a weird, I cannot believe you guys

00:06:07.920 are de-emphasizing Hulu.

00:06:10.860 You look like...

00:06:11.460 No, no, no.

00:06:12.560 Well, it's all past me.

00:06:14.180 My point is

00:06:15.220 is that there's a lot of variables

00:06:17.920 that track that.

00:06:19.720 It wasn't just one.

00:06:21.200 It wasn't the company's stance

00:06:22.400 on LGBTQ. 1.00

00:06:22.960 That's a big one, though.

00:06:24.240 But it is one.

00:06:25.440 And I think it would be a mistake

00:06:27.240 to look at that

00:06:28.060 as the dependent variable

00:06:29.460 and say it's because of one thing.

00:06:31.600 There's a lot of things.

00:06:32.900 You know,

00:06:33.400 I was asked a question earlier today

00:06:35.380 in an interview.

00:06:36.260 If I had one wish

00:06:37.320 for the company,

00:06:37.920 what would it be? My wish would be that it had a growth vehicle, because I think that is a function

00:06:43.300 of the company not having something that Wall Street sees as an obvious growth vehicle.

00:06:48.940 Streaming looked like it was going to be it, and now they're selling Disney content off to

00:06:54.000 other third parties that aren't streamers. It's not exclusive to Disney anymore. There's a lot

00:06:58.680 of things that there's, so there's a lot that goes into this, but I think this speaks, if you

00:07:03.600 would ask anybody from wall street this speaks to as much of that yeah we don't see a real strong

00:07:09.420 growth driver we know that you know the cable business broadcast business going away we know

00:07:15.080 espn is challenged because of you know cost of sports rights relative to what it can charge and

00:07:20.780 it's trying now to invest in streaming you know parks is doing well um you know but where's where's

00:07:29.240 Where's the growth going to come for you?

00:07:31.280 Are you a long buy on Disney?

00:07:36.040 So your decaf oat milk, extra but not piping hot,

00:07:39.020 four pumps of caramel, no sugar, small latte, and a large cup.

00:07:41.820 That will be 10 minutes.

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00:07:52.720 Here's your decaf oat milk, extra but not piping hot.

00:07:55.300 Ah, thanks.

00:07:56.140 Playtime's over.

00:07:57.480 Mmm, lovely.

00:07:58.420 I'd have to see where Josh is going to take it.

00:08:12.380 I think it's going to take some courage to go long on Disney.

00:08:17.500 He has to confront Iger.

00:08:20.300 He has to confront legacy management decisions.

00:08:26.440 He has to be bold.

00:08:27.700 He has to have courage.

00:08:29.320 Is he a strong character guy?

00:08:31.260 Strong character guy, yeah.

00:08:32.500 Okay, that's good.

00:08:33.700 Is there a strong foundation with him as an individual?

00:08:36.160 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:08:37.560 That's great.

00:08:38.040 Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no.

00:08:39.060 That's great.

00:08:39.620 And is he a family guy?

00:08:41.660 He is.

00:08:42.580 He is.

00:08:43.120 Very much so.

00:08:45.200 Good.

00:08:46.060 Very much so.

00:08:46.940 Listen, to me, I'm the guy where when a local business shuts down

00:08:53.400 and say I've been going to that place for 10 years, I don't like that.

00:08:56.380 It's like a funeral to me.

00:08:57.620 And I'm a guy that loves America, and one of the things about America to me is Disney.

00:09:02.840 I don't think you can say America, and Disney is not a part of the story.

00:09:08.560 Walt, what he did, him and his brother Roy, Roy was the CEO for the first 40 years, and him the creative.

00:09:13.720 It's an incredible story.

00:09:15.380 It's an incredible story.

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00:09:49.780 Made for the life you've earned

00:09:54.400 If you enjoy this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.

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00:10:08.080 So your decaf oat milk, extra but not piping hot, four pumps of caramel, no sugar, small latte, and a large cup.

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00:10:27.360 Aha, thanks.

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Valuetainment - October 01, 2026

Disney Almost Promoted a CONSERVATIVE CEO - UNTOLD STORY

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