All right, but let's have a look at Walt Disney. It's shares up the most and almost two years that after, the company brought back former lead up Bob I get to replace his successor, Bob J. Peck as a CEO. Let's get to Chris peal Mary's he edited with Bloomberg Media and the Telecoms team. Thanks for joining us here, Chris, what do you make of this? Uh, well, it's a surprise. Uh. You know, this had been a transition that had been
in the works for years. Uh. And Bob Chapick was was Bob Iger's handpicked successor, but he clearly had a lot of problems. He is a brusque individual who was just never able to connect with employees. He obviously had a very difficult time taking over right at the start of the pandemic, but he didn't make life any easier with his approach and the way he ran the company. Chris,
correct me if I'm wrong. Chap It came from the theme park side, so maybe a lot of his skill set was it was not suited to a lot of the challenges the Disney is facing when it comes to things like ESPN or the streaming side of the business. That was one of the considerations. He's actually he's been at the company for a long time. He started out in the home entertainment, so he dealing with you know,
actually videotapes back in the day. Then he ran consumer products, all the merchandise there, and then as you noted, that ran the theme parks, and and most of the analysts sort of agree he actually did a terrific job at the theme parks. Almost too good, he was. His tenure is going to be sort of most noted for really increasing prices. Uh, not a happy scene among the Disney theme park loyalists. He required reservations, he raised ticket prices.
He started this new line cutting the system that you have to pay extra four so you know, we could add another forty dollars on top of your hundred and eighty dollar theme park tickets. So you know a lot of really dramatic price increases that have made the business
for profitable but not beloved. All right, Well, I mean the thing is he was above Bigo was uh, I me think he was the chairman not too long ago of Disney and also see of course naturally as we know here, but you know, in the time he's been away, the landscape has changed so much. Do you think he's got the right tools to turn Disney around. He is, you know, widely regarded as just about the best media
executive in the business. And if you look at the dramatic growth Disney had up until he left, you know, with the launch of Disney Plus, you know, was all his idea that you know now has you know, two hundred million subscribers worldwide, lull of their streaming businesses. Um, you've got um, you know, all of the acquisitions he did with Pixar, Marvel, lucasfilm Box. So he's he's a very creative guy, has good relations with all the talent
and the talent agencies. But yeah, this is a challenge that one of the reasons Rapeck is out is because the streaming V business lost one point five billion dollars in the mostly some quarter. Uh that's a lot of money for any company. And he has Tiger has to navigate this transition between the traditional TV world, which is you know, people are watching less and less into this new streaming era and do it profitably. Um. But you know, nobody sort of doubts that if there's anybody you can
do it. It is Bob Eyer. It's kind of interesting because when you look back, before Mr Iger took the reins back in I think it was September two thousand five, Michael Eisner ran this company and he was pushed out, I believe at the time. And Eisner was regarded as a very effective CEO. But at some point, when the market starts moving against you, you have to be reactive. That's it. And you know, Eisner's also had you know,
particularly in his first ten years or so. Uh, he did a terrific job growing to business, both the theme parks, you know, made the acquisition of Capital City's ABC that gave the company ESPN, you know, which was a huge, huge profit generator for years. Uh, it's just you know, stayed a little bit too long for a lot of people's comfort. Uh, things started going south and and that's when I stepped in, you know, But it was it was once again, it was very dramatic succession. Eisner did
not go up quietly. Well, absolutely, that's it here as well, Chris, you know what happens next? What are the metrics that what has he got to deal with? First of all, what's on it to do list? We're already seeing some
of the action. Today he announced that he was essentially ondoing this very unpopular move that Chapek had made internally, which Chapeck decided that everybody on the creative side and the traditional TV business to film studios and that uh needed to report to this one central authority which was going to be in chargeable business decisions, whether it's ad sales, what movies to make, what channels or streaming services to
put TV show on. And you know this rankled the traditional studio heads and network chiefs who used to have that authority, and you know they were all listening to this this other business unit headed by this one individual, and uh so Iger fired him today Kareem Daniel and said that he's going to reconnect with all of the traditional head of the film studio, head of the TV business, head of ESPN and figure out a new corporate structure which will probably look a lot like the old one,
where you have these individual managers responsible for their own decisions both a business and a creative standpoint. But I'm wondering whether or not part of his strategy will include exiting or at least reducing some of the company's exposure in certain business lines. We were talking earlier with one of our guests who was saying that maybe Hulu, for example, could be viewed differently as Iger returns to UH the
CEO role. I'd be really surprised of that wor the case. Remember, Hulu UM is the company's interested who lose significantly increased under Iger's presence. You know, it went from to sixty three and then he negotiated the option to acquire UH Comcast one third UH and and you know that's a deal that they already have a contract on. Their question right now is just what price. I think that Hulus is very much a piece of this overall puzzle, the
streaming service. It's very popular, it's got a lot of really good shows, and most likely after Disney acquires that other third, they're going to integrate it more fully into the Disney Plus product. Which if there's a criticism of Disney Plus, it's that it doesn't really have enough for adults, whereas Hulu that's exactly you know what what they have. So I think you'll you'll see who more fully integrated
into the Disney streaming business. Underwriter, Well, the market seems to like this news, as Disney shares rallied by more than six percent today on news that Bob Iger will replace his successor, Bob Chapick A CEO. Chris Maul Paul Mary, thanks so much for being with us. Chris a senior editor with Bloomberg's Media and Telecom team,