Bob Iger had a plan for Disney for over two years.
Disney+, the company's flagship streaming service, has more than 160 million subscribers worldwide. Iger stepped down as CEO immediately.
The corporate structure of Disney was changed after he took over as CEO. The general idea of building up Disney+ by spending billions on new content was in line with Iger's strategy. It worked for a while. Theme parks were closed and movies were not shown in theaters, but Disney shares rose. Money-losing streaming services were cheered by investors as long as they continued to show growth.
The music stopped when interest rates went up and customer growth slowed. Disney+ had over 12 million subscribers this month. Disney did a lot of the change in narrative, as they pushed to get to profitability over subscriber growth. Disney realized that it wouldn't be able to reach its target of 230 million to 260 million Disney+ subscribers by the end of the decade. In August, the bar was lowered by chapek. Disney shares have been falling.
The reality is that Disney isn't all-in on streaming. Disney has held on to it's main asset. For the second year in a row, the best sporting events can only be seen on cable.
The Disney board has turned to Iger to come up with a new plan over the next two years. It is an easy and necessary first move to reorganize the company to put more decision-making in the hands of the creative teams. It's more of a process change than a strategy.
The biggest challenge for Iger will be deciding which Disney assets should be sold or spun off. Iger, who built the modern Disney with purpose, won't be easy to please. Pixar, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox were all bought by him.
In the past, Iger has had the chance to sell Disney's cable networks, including ABC and its affiliates. In the past, he didn't, but he thinks he will have to now.
Bob Iger should make a list of the assets he wants Disney to keep and the ones he wants to sell. Is Disney going to look the same over the next five years? We don't know what assets we need. Every decision after that should follow the answer.
The NBA broadcast rights, which will be re-negotiated in 2023, should be passed on to another company. He said he would try to sell the streaming service to the cable company for less than the cost of the remaining stake.
It is1-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 He could focus on finding the next leader of Disney and let that person make the big calls in the next two years if he decided to be a transition CEO.
Iger has never done that. He kept the job by not retiring three times. He's back again.
Iger came back even though he said publicly that he couldn't go home again.
It is likely that he has ideas about how to move Disney forward.
The old plan can't be the new plan The plan didn't work. Iger will have to make some difficult decisions.
The investor is bullish on Disney.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
