This is a surprise return for the ex-CEO who had given way to Bob Chapek in 2020. The board of directors recalled him to his post while the group streaming platforms face Difficulties.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The former Disney boss, Bob Iger, takes up service. The manager who had left his place as CEO in Bob Chapek in 2020 after fifteen years in this position and forty years of house again takes the head of the Disney group with immediate effect, announced the company on Sunday.
m. Iger has accepted a two-year mission with the objective of establishing a strategy for “renewed growth”, said Disney in a press release. It will be loaded in particular to find a successor.
“Mr. Iger has the deep respect for the Disney management team (…) and he is greatly admired by Disney employees around the world – all this will allow a transparent transition from management,” said Susan Arnold, the president of the Disney Board of Directors. “As Disney is committed to an increasingly complex industry transformation period, Bob Iger is particularly well placed to direct the company during this pivotal period,” she added.
Mixed Streaming Results
The company, founded in 1923, did not specify the reasons for the departure of Bob Chapek. “We thank Bob Chapek for the services he has rendered to Disney during his long career, in particular by guiding the company through the unpublished challenges of the pandemic,” said Susan Arnold, in the press release.
Bob Chapek, a Disney veteran, took office in early 2020, just at the start of the pandemic. He had to manage the closure of amusement parks and cinemas but also the expansion of streaming.
The results of this activity have recently emerged mixed. If Disney+ still won subscribers in the third quarter, the Californian group streaming platforms (Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu) accused an operational loss of nearly $ 1.5 billion. Disney’s action had lost more than 13 % the day after the announcement of these results in early November.
At the head of the company from 2005 to 2020, Bob Iger, who had remained chairman of the group’s board of directors until 2021, had transformed it into an entertainment empire, between the acquisitions of the studio d ‘Pixar animation in 2006, from Marvel in 2009 or the essentials of the assets of the ex-group 21st Century Fox in 2019. He had finished his mandate with the launch of Disney+.