Disney's Next CEO: Kevin Mayer Hints Bob Iger's Successor Will Be Revealed Soon

Jun 21, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Bob Iger

Posted: Friday June 21, 2024 8:45am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Kevin Mayer, Candle Media co-founder and former Disney executive, shared insights into Disney CEO Bob Iger's ongoing succession planning.

Mayer, an advisor to Iger, also provided a glimpse into whether the current Disney boss may make one more big move before his planned departure at the end of 2026.

Bob Iger at Walt Disney World

Mayer believes that the company is well-prepared for a smooth transition this time around. "Bob's there for two and a half more years. There's plenty of time," Mayer stated. He highlighted what he believes is a strong management team already in place: "They have a very, very solid management team across the board."

There are four internal candidates reportedly in the running for the Disney CEO role, which Iger occupied from 2005 to 2020 before his return in November 2022: Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chiefs of the entertainment division; Josh D'Amaro, head of the parks division; and Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN.

As for the timeline, Mayer indicated that an announcement might come sooner rather than later. "We may know this year, but he's got two and a half more years, so it wouldn't surprise me if it extended a little bit beyond this calendar year," he said.

Speaking of the future, one of the intriguing aspects of Mayer's comments was the hint at Iger possibly making another significant strategic move before his departure. "Do I think he wants to do one more big thing before he leaves? Possibly." Mayer speculated. This raises the question of what kind of legacy-defining move Iger might still be considering, especially given his history of transformative acquisitions like Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox.

You can see the full interview at Yahoo Finance.

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MisterPenguin7 hours ago

Comcast did drive up the cost of Fox. But Disney returned the favor and bid up the cost of Sky, which Comcast bought. And now that Sky was overpriced, Disney sold their share of the overpriced Sky to Comcast. In the end, after buying Fox, Disney got $40M out of divestitures, drastically reducing the cost of Fox. Disney kept Fox out of competitors' hands. And transformed D+ content from "family" to "general audience" allowing them to set a new sub target after blowing through the first target in a manner of months. And Disney met their goal of when D+ would be profitable. In a competitive market, you're not going to have fantastical win after win. Even Netflix, the front runner, had a live-action streaming debacle. But that's not going to sink Netflix. And Disney isn't going to sink with several minor setbacks.

Brian9 hours ago

Two years ago tonight, Iger was abruptly reinstated as CEO and Chapek was relegated to the Disney archives.

BrianLo9 hours ago

There was immediate divestments of 30.5 billion dollars for the bigger ticket items. Many of them contingent and occurred with the purchase. Sky before. Hotstar most recently. I cannot find accessible numbers for True(X), Fox Next, TeleColombia, FoxSports Mexico, A&E Europe, Argentinian FoxSports. So in essence Disney is saddled with a 30-35B end price. Not 71. Hulu is worth 8.9 (at least). As for the other 20-25B, that’s the rub. FX, Searchlight, 20th century are the main keynotes. Along with their back catalogues and IP. They basically bought a general entertainment catalogue and production arm; which is not nothing. It’s actually a fairly strong general entertainment based arm. I’m not disagreeing that Bob was about to get an actual good deal and Roberts drove it up.

coffeefan9 hours ago

Since we're about to enter a new era of M&A Disney should consider buying SquareEnix. It would be such a great fit.

BrianLo10 hours ago

That’s what I’m referring to. Comcast bid Disney up 18B and then subsequently bought out Sky from them and paid at least 8.5B too much for it in the process. It’s kind of a wash for who overpaid more when they split the difference, but Roberts certainly doesn’t come off smart, with the better asset, nor laughing.

monothingie11 hours ago

So that Bob could overpay by $20B. This was personal for Bob and he was not going to let Brian steal the largest deal of his career. Brian knew that and played Bob to over pay. Other than the 1/3 of Hulu from Fox can you let me know what they got that is currently profitable for them and justified the $71B spent?

Stripes11 hours ago

Didn’t Comcast bid $65 billion? So you’re saying Comcast would have overpaid by $14 billion? I think, in the end, Disney has gotten their money’s worth out of 21CF. And due to the strength of those assets they are uniquely well positioned in the future.

Stripes11 hours ago

ARPU went up by 2.66% for domestic Disney+ in FY24. Rupert got a lot more Disney stock and became Disney’s 2nd largest shareholder which could very well come in handy over the next 4 years.

monothingie12 hours ago

This dates back to before the Hulu buyout. This was during the bidding war for 21CF where Disney overpaid by close to $20+B.

monothingie12 hours ago

The carriage deal with Charter resulted in a higher number of subscribers to D+. (6M) Albeit as wholesale subscriber accounts with a much lower ARPU. How much more did Rupert get for 21CF because Brian played Iger’s ego?

Nevermore52513 hours ago

Just to add comparison to fiscal 2023: D+ Revenue $8.9B, production costs $5.7B Hulu Revenue $11.4B, production costs $8.3B

Nevermore52513 hours ago

D+ annual Revenue per the 10-K approximately $10.6B, D+ production costs $5.5B Hulu annual revenue approximately $12.3B, Hulu production costs $8.6B

BrianLo13 hours ago

I disagree. I really don’t feel like Comcast came out well, either. Disney was in the odd position where they clearly were bid up to overpay, but then offloaded half the assets for an equally elevated price. Comcast merely bought an asset for an elevated price and missed out on the one it probably needed (Hulu). Depending on final Hulu valuation, Disney may have walked away with Fox’s third for a relative steal. Both companies were hurt by Roberts. There was nothing he has to gloat about.

Stripes13 hours ago

Evidence? I’m not sure how you can be so sure considering domestic Disney+ subscriptions grew by 6 million more than Hulu’s did in FY2024. The only assets that I’d be looking to dump ASAP are the Sky assets, which are exactly the ones Brian Roberts was suckered into paying a fortune for.