Valuetainment - “The Entertainment Industry Is DEAD!” - Disney DUMPS Bob Iger In MASSIVE CEO Power Shift

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00:00:49.720 The government is planning to meet next week and vote on who will replace Iger.

00:00:53.540 Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar to the matter, Iger74 has told close associates in recent months that his decision was motivated and part of frustration about feuds that arose at Disney-owned ABC over his decision to suspend late-night Jimmy Kimmel last year, according to the outlets.

00:01:10.620 Disney boss also reportedly has said he wanted to move on from the grind of being a CEO and focus on things, including spending more time with wife and managing his women's pro soccer team, et cetera, et cetera.

00:01:21.520 Now, while this story is being told, story comes out three days later.

00:01:27.420 Disney names theme park's boss, Josh D'Amaro, as its new CEO.

00:01:31.900 Rob, is this the clip from it?

00:01:33.000 This is actually the new CEO with Bob Iger sitting down with ABC News.

00:01:36.980 Go for it. Play the clip. Go for it.

00:01:38.780 Bob's a big risk taker. I'm a big risk taker.

00:01:42.400 And that's been true my whole life with how I've approached growing as an individual to how I've approached the business world.

00:01:50.820 And I think you see that on full display today.

00:01:53.920 I mean, just several months ago, we announced a massive expansion in a new part of the world in Abu Dhabi.

00:02:01.220 We did that quickly.

00:02:02.560 We did it ambitiously.

00:02:04.040 And we knew there was a new part of the world to serve.

00:02:07.520 Tom, your thoughts with this new assignment, new appointment.

00:02:10.680 Okay, here they go again.

00:02:11.780 So, when Iger retired the first time, after he wrote the book, Send Me a Lifeline, I mean, The Rite of a Lifetime, The Rite of a Lifetime, that was the book.

00:02:22.520 I got him out of order.

00:02:23.640 It's a sequel will be Send Me a Lifeline.

00:02:27.340 Iger, remember, steps down.

00:02:28.780 And who did they put in there, Pat?

00:02:31.140 Chapek. 1.00

00:02:31.620 And where did Chapek come from? 1.00

00:02:33.700 Theme parks.

00:02:34.660 And they said that he messed things up on the content side.

00:02:38.280 He ended up in some sort of a dispute with Kathleen Kennedy on the content.

00:02:45.480 And then Chapek, they're like, okay, okay, okay, this theme park guy has been unable to bring things together in terms of streaming and all the stuff we put together.

00:02:54.920 So, Chapek out. 1.00

00:02:57.080 Iger comes back.

00:02:58.580 Now, Iger's leaving, and we're going to go get a content guide.

00:03:01.820 Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.

00:03:02.880 I'm sorry.

00:03:04.040 Josh Diomaro is from theme parks.

00:03:06.460 So, here we go again.

00:03:07.740 At a time when streaming is up there, and we've got the merger of Netflix or Paramount or Warner, and we have the wars going on, and we have Hulu and Netflix raising prices and trying to find the equilibrium, and we've got people competing with the news division, like your podcast here, sir, all of that going on.

00:03:30.660 So, don't you think you would want a forward strategist in the content area to be there?

00:03:36.700 Instead, you go back to the theme park guy that had recent successes like building the theme park in Abu Dhabi.

00:03:44.180 By the way, it's a unanimous pick by the board.

00:03:46.400 It's not like they had a second pick.

00:03:49.460 I mean, everything I'm looking at is unanimous Diomaro.

00:03:51.900 And it's March 18th, which means Bob Iger, after apparently the January board meeting, and by the way, he didn't make announcement.

00:04:01.380 He leaked it through friends.

00:04:03.060 You notice that?

00:04:04.080 Friends of Iger leaked it to someone at the post.

00:04:07.300 This is called getting ahead of the narrative and protecting your own reputation.

00:04:10.800 It appears that Iger leaked it after January.

00:04:15.280 They said, Bob, you know, we've unanimously decided Amaro needs to take over.

00:04:19.900 He's had a bunch of success this year at the theme parks.

00:04:22.620 He's going to be our guy.

00:04:24.200 And by the way, no, you're not serving out the end of the year.

00:04:27.700 You're not even serving out first quarter.

00:04:29.980 March 18th, Amaro's getting in the chair.

00:04:31.880 I've been at the company now for 27 years, Diomaro says.

00:04:34.860 I've had the great benefit of a great honor of working with Bob all of those years.

00:04:38.620 So for 27 years, he's worked with Iger, first from a distance and now much more up close and personal.

00:04:47.020 And I've watched probably the best of the best balance between these two things.

00:04:50.660 As Bob talks about being close to the fans and guests, this is something that's important.

00:04:54.640 I spent a lot of time in our beloved parks that hundreds of millions of people enjoy every year.

00:04:59.280 And I see firsthand the importance of the brand, what Disney meant to them, et cetera, et cetera.

00:05:03.780 By the way, his pay package is $38 million, $28 million, $2.5 million salary with a one-time bonus of $9.75 million with $26.2 million of stock incentives.

00:05:16.740 And his bonus on his $2.5 million is 250%.

00:05:19.700 Quite honestly, this is a cheap contract with Disney.

00:05:22.820 Like what a cheap company to pay so little for a guy that they want to turn things around.

00:05:28.360 You're going to give him this much?

00:05:29.320 By the way, it was $4.66.

00:05:32.600 The company was worth $4.66 at its peak in 2025.

00:05:37.720 It is now whatever, $350, $360.

00:05:40.040 I think this is a trillion-dollar company.

00:05:42.200 But bringing a guy like this, I don't know what's going to end up happening.

00:05:44.660 Well, he lives in California.

00:05:45.280 Starbucks is a much smaller company.

00:05:47.080 You know what the contract was for Brian Nickel?

00:05:49.580 You know what Starbucks gave Brian Nickel?

00:05:51.520 What was the contract Starbucks gave to Brian Nickel, by the way?

00:05:56.060 It's a $40 million, I think.

00:05:57.120 I thought it was a $199 million contract.

00:06:00.020 That could be off.

00:06:01.100 But I thought it was $100 million plus.

00:06:03.540 What was it?

00:06:04.260 Pay deals?

00:06:05.140 Okay, $113 million for a company that was worth, you know, I don't know what it was worth at the time.

00:06:12.340 Definitely wasn't the size of Disney, but they paid him $113 million.

00:06:16.920 Guess what he's done?

00:06:17.780 He's done a pretty good job.

00:06:19.040 So we're going to see what's going to happen with this guy.

00:06:20.700 Jeff, what are you at with this?

00:06:21.740 Well, I think they got the guy in the cheap because they're looking to do, you know, can you be-

00:06:26.400 Change control?

00:06:26.920 Yeah, sort of.

00:06:27.680 But these are the moves of an industry that's in the death throes.

00:06:32.460 The entertainment industry as we knew it is dead.

00:06:35.260 And some people realize it, some people don't.

00:06:37.120 And the reason the entertainment industry is going through radical transformation is because of you, people like you.

00:06:41.720 So social media, the ability to create content freed from all of those, you know, legacy baggage and everything else has led to a brave new world where the old way of doing things no longer fits.

00:06:54.140 And so trying to push everybody into appointment television, which, I mean, does anybody actually watch appointment television anymore?

00:06:59.760 I mean, I suppose boomers actually do.

00:07:01.480 But most young people have never even turned on a cable box or even know what it actually is.

00:07:07.160 Most people have never, they don't even know who, you know, nightly news reports.

00:07:11.060 What are those?

00:07:11.680 So the media is, the entire industry is going through some massive changes and not everybody realizes that they're not going to win this.

00:07:21.600 So I think Disney is trying to resist in the same way that Netflix and Warner are trying to resist the radical transformation that's undergoing on the industry.

00:07:28.960 Why give the job to a theme park?

00:07:31.680 Rob, can you pull up-

00:07:32.460 It's a safe, it's the safe bet.

00:07:34.060 Do you think that's what they're doing?

00:07:34.740 It's continuity.

00:07:35.280 Okay, so Rob, can you, I think we've looked at this before, can you pull up the percentage of revenue Disney brings in from movies, from theme parks?

00:07:44.360 I do think theme parks is a big part of it.

00:07:46.380 It's like 30%.

00:07:46.940 Say that again?

00:07:47.720 I think theme parks is like 30%.

00:07:49.240 30%.

00:07:49.920 What's next?

00:07:51.840 I want to know what's next.

00:07:53.000 Do you know the numbers or no?

00:07:54.380 I don't know the numbers offhand.

00:07:55.320 May I ask you a question?

00:07:56.080 Please.

00:07:56.700 So how many big companies have you consulted with where they talk about a gap and you say, well, who's the number two in that division?

00:08:04.380 And they're like, we don't really have one.

00:08:06.620 You have it all the time.

00:08:07.740 And you say, well, then you need to do the following five moves to get your company ready.

00:08:11.800 You have these things all the time.

00:08:13.000 What if they didn't have anybody on the content and streaming and they had just got Kathleen Kennedy to leave?

00:08:19.420 Yeah.

00:08:19.640 So if you look at this, Tom, theme parks is 46, movies is 42, then a movie studio streaming is 42.

00:08:25.660 And then movie studio content is 11.

00:08:27.400 Used to be a very different thing 30 years ago, 40 years ago.

00:08:30.280 But that's like Amazon giving the CEO job to Andy Jazzy because Andy was the one that was running Amazon Web Services, AWS.

00:08:40.840 But what did AWS happen?

00:08:42.000 Yeah.

00:08:42.240 No, you're right.

00:08:42.940 And it's got massive profit margins that they put it there.

00:08:46.500 But we'll see.

00:08:47.780 Look, respectfully.

00:08:49.540 The fact that Di Amaro said nothing.

00:08:51.560 I mean, he didn't come out and say, I'm going to do things very differently.

00:08:53.760 He said, I'm a risk taker like Bob Iger.

00:08:55.260 Yeah, buzzwords.

00:08:56.600 I mean, he said nothing.

00:08:57.900 There's nothing of substance in any of his comments.

00:08:59.660 What did you want to hear from him, though?

00:09:00.780 I wanted him to say.

00:09:01.840 What did you want to hear?

00:09:02.560 I wanted him to say that, look, we've done things wrong here at Disney.

00:09:06.120 We screwed up Marvel big time.

00:09:08.300 He can't say that next to Bob, though.

00:09:10.920 What about an innovative campaign moment?

00:09:12.440 If he was a risk taker, he would have said it right there and said, look, you're wrong, Bob.

00:09:18.320 Everything you did was wrong.

00:09:19.600 We need to change course.

00:09:20.440 Brandon, where are you at?

00:09:21.340 Yeah, no.

00:09:21.700 I mean, when was the last time Disney did something exciting?

00:09:23.600 They have all the resources and history in the world to reinvent themselves, but they haven't reinvented themselves.

00:09:28.720 This is like an NFL team firing a coach in the middle of the season and putting their offensive coordinator as the new guy when he has no track record or nothing exciting about him.

00:09:37.280 So I think they could radically reinvent themselves.

00:09:39.760 They could launch an innovative campaign.

00:09:41.360 And like you said, they could be a trillion-dollar company with the resources they have.

00:09:44.660 People want to love Disney.

00:09:46.160 You know, it's like fun and exciting to love Disney, but it's like California where they've literally done everything possible to make people hate them and make themselves a bad brand over the last five or ten years.

00:09:55.760 So, I mean, I think it's like super doable if they brought somebody with good ideas in there, but they shouldn't bring a guy who's been there for 27 years absorbing the bad habits of the prior CEOs.

00:10:04.600 So remember when Disney, specifically with Bob Iger, when he was celebrating, I won, the board sided with me to not allow Nelson Peltz.

00:10:14.580 Remember that guy that, you know, Nelson Peltz was the billionaire that wanted to be on the board and they rejected him, right?

00:10:21.520 And Bob Iger successfully defended its slate and the two billionaire-backed nominees were not seated despite several months of campaigning.

00:10:28.540 It was Nelson Peltz and this other guy named Jay Rasulo.

00:10:32.680 Although not a billionaire, he was the allied board nominee backed by Peltz's campaign.

00:10:36.980 The fact that the entire board agreed on this hire is part of the problem.

00:10:43.420 That's part of the problem.

00:10:45.060 I would have liked to have heard 60-40.

00:10:48.960 I want to hear a board member disagree with the stuff that they're doing.

00:10:54.100 And at the end of the day, you got a brand.

00:10:57.180 How many brands are as well-known as Disney worldwide?

00:11:01.160 How many, honestly, like Coca-Cola's one, McDonald's is one.

00:11:05.140 What else would you say is a big – Rob, can you type in most recognizable brands around the world?

00:11:11.580 I thought Coca-Cola was number one, that every 300 feet was a Coca-Cola logo in populated areas.

00:11:17.280 I think that's the stat.

00:11:19.880 In populated areas –

00:11:21.160 Coca-Cola is one, Nike, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Google.

00:11:26.420 So it's going by industries.

00:11:30.360 Okay, Gucci, Chanel, Louis go a little bit lower.

00:11:32.820 Let's see what media says.

00:11:35.100 Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, Meta doesn't even have Disney there anymore.

00:11:39.420 That is pretty wild.

00:11:40.680 Starbucks, Pepsi, KFC.

00:11:42.900 But is there a ranking ranking?

00:11:44.880 Because when you think about Disney, to me, ran by the right person.

00:11:49.940 If your board had a few conservatives or even pro-family type of guys that there is the proper debate, there is such a massive –

00:11:58.800 if I'm running Disney right now, I'm looking at Netflix getting destroyed on TV, I'm like,

00:12:02.660 dude, guys, we have a massive opportunity right now, vice versa, each of them.

00:12:08.620 We have a massive opportunity right now to win people over.

00:12:12.400 What would that be?

00:12:14.440 Well, that was what Paramount did with CBS, right?

00:12:16.860 It was the market opportunity to bring a news organization back to the middle.

00:12:21.320 And look what they did.

00:12:22.620 Look what they did.

00:12:23.280 I mean, you know, they did have a little bit of a hiccup with that one guy they had to distance themselves from who was tied to the Epstein files.

00:12:32.000 Who was that guy, Rob, that was on the island that was part of CBS?

00:12:35.540 The health guy.

00:12:36.100 The doctor, Peter Atiyah.

00:12:37.260 I don't know if he was on the island, but he was in the emails with Jeffrey.

00:12:40.360 He was not on the island.

00:12:41.260 You're right.

00:12:41.540 There's an exchange, a lot of friendly exchange.

00:12:43.820 He talked about what a low-carb diet is.

00:12:46.780 Embarrassingly included in the Epstein.

00:12:48.380 Wasn't it something like 1,700 times he was in the Epstein emails, which is, you know, not casual?

00:12:53.680 No, it's not casual.

00:12:54.980 And he was, yeah.

00:12:56.820 You think the large shareholders could do anything about this?

00:12:59.120 Because I know really past the board, it's just the shareholders that have the most influence.

00:13:03.000 And, you know, if they got.

00:13:03.980 Take a look at the board.

00:13:04.760 Disney's board has long been known.

00:13:05.660 Well, look at who their largest shareholders are.

00:13:07.500 See that again?

00:13:07.840 BlackRock.

00:13:08.260 Go look at the Disney board.

00:13:09.280 Rob, can you put up the list of Disney board members?

00:13:11.820 I mean, look, that's part of the problem.

00:13:12.480 And tell me who you think on there is a forward-thinking.

00:13:15.880 And then I have to say Glass-Lewis.

00:13:17.000 Exactly.

00:13:17.400 Maybe rebel.

00:13:18.760 You have institutional shareholder ownership, which means companies like BlackRock are effectively controlling these businesses.

00:13:24.720 And BlackRock is, I mean, we all know what BlackRock is.

00:13:27.360 So that's one reason why some of these businesses are so heavily resistant to change is because it's not really owned by shareholders.

00:13:33.720 The shareholders own the stock, but the proxies are voted by BlackRock.

00:13:37.740 And BlackRock doesn't care.

00:13:39.640 Right, exactly.

00:13:40.320 ISS tells BlackRock how to vote.

00:13:41.780 Yep.

00:13:41.960 Yeah, I'm on here trying to find out.

00:13:45.720 I'd love to know how they donate their money.

00:13:47.920 So one of them is James Gorman, chairman of the board, former Morgan Stanley executive.

00:13:53.560 Then it's Mark Mary Barra, CEO of GM.

00:13:57.520 Amy Chang, technology executive with leadership experience AI.

00:14:01.880 Jeremy Darick is experienced global media and communications executive.

00:14:06.600 Caroline Everson, senior executive with experience in digital global marketing.

00:14:13.560 Michael Froman, strategic growth and international trade expert.

00:14:18.140 Robert Iger.

00:14:18.780 Maria Elena Logomasino, investment executive.

00:14:23.180 Calvin McDonald, CEO of Lululemon.

00:14:25.840 Derica Rice, senior leader with experience in finance.

00:14:30.140 And then you got Safra Katz, CEO of Oracle and long-time Disney director.

00:14:35.100 And then you have Mark Parker, director nominated, elected as part of 2026 slate.

00:14:40.780 And by the way, if I'm not mistaken, if you look at Netflix's board, you know who's on Netflix's board?

00:14:45.840 If you look at Netflix's board, I think Ted Cruz or Holly mentioned one of the names that works closely with them.

00:14:57.460 Netflix's board is similar situation.

00:15:01.580 Which board?

00:15:02.920 Yeah, Mary Barra.

00:15:04.720 Investing is all about the future.

00:15:06.840 So what do you think is going to happen?

00:15:08.860 Bitcoin is sort of inevitable at this point.

00:15:11.320 I think it would come down to precious metals.

00:15:13.560 I hope we don't go cashless.

00:15:16.120 I would say land is a safe investment.

00:15:18.560 Technology, companies, solar energy.

00:15:20.700 Robotic pollinators might be a thing. 1.00

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00:15:45.840 Who's that?

00:15:51.540 She runs General Motors, you know.

00:15:54.020 Yeah, but look at the name right there, board of directors, Susan Rice.

00:15:57.240 Who's Susan Rice? 1.00

00:15:58.940 Former U.S. National Security Advisor sitting on the board of Netflix.

00:16:04.120 See, this is the whole point that I was about to make.

00:16:07.600 These boards all recommend each other to boards, and you don't have people on there that are going to challenge the CEO.

00:16:15.780 The CEO does it by design to not be challenged.

00:16:20.340 Do you think any technology company in their right?

00:16:25.340 Let me ask you this way.

00:16:27.940 Microsoft does not have a social media platform per se.

00:16:31.140 Would Microsoft put Elon Musk on the board?

00:16:33.440 No way!

00:16:34.380 They would not put somebody on there that would challenge their thinking.

00:16:38.360 That's not the way these boards work.

00:16:40.000 Yeah, I mean, look.

00:16:41.860 Again, both have a big same problem.

00:16:44.600 They can really capitalize.

00:16:47.200 There is tens of millions of people that want to support Disney or Netflix.

00:16:51.820 Netflix, if you get your act right, if you get your act right.

00:16:55.300 So, we'll see what this new CEO is going to be doing.

00:16:58.640 They got him at a discount.

00:16:59.940 I don't know how good he is, but apparently he doesn't have good negotiation skills

00:17:03.660 because I want to be able to have him negotiate better with a half a trillion dollar company

00:17:06.780 than the numbers he negotiated with.

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00:17:38.760 And if I was to ask you to order them and say,

00:17:41.320 Ah, I think I want them to like me first.

00:17:44.260 Then I want them to trust me.

00:17:45.900 Then I want them to respect me.

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Valuetainment - February 05, 2026

“The Entertainment Industry Is DEAD!” - Disney DUMPS Bob Iger In MASSIVE CEO Power Shift

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