Shakeup at The Disney Company

[Eutychus]

The vice chairman of the Walt Disney Company, Roy E. Disney, resigned from the board of directors today, citing his “serious differences of opinion” with the chairman and chief executive, Michael D. Eisner, “about the direction and style of management in the company.”

In a letter to Mr. Eisner, Mr. Disney also called for Mr. Eisner’s resignation. In addition, Mr. Disney stepped down from his position as chairman of the feature animation division.

The entire article is

here.

This could either be the end of classic Disney or the beginning of a whole new era. Stay tooned.

[SolGrundy]

Or, it could be just more of the same. The version I read was on Yahoo’s AP Entertainment feed, and it made it sound as if Roy was getting ousted (on basis of “mandatory retirement age”) but that Eisner wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, the article pretty strongly implied that the board was still pro-Eisner:

In September, 2002, after months of often bitter infighting among board members about the company’s declining fortunes, the board unanimously approved Eisner’s plan for improvement, which included the most drastic changes in board membership since Eisner became chairman.

One of the changes included bringing more independent members to the board, which had long been criticized for having a too cozy relationship with Eisner.

Since then, another vocal Eisner critic, Andrea Van de Kamp, was dropped from the board.

I don’t know (and don’t care to know) the true inner workings of such a huge corporation, but I get the impression from reports of Eisner’s micromanagement that Roy Disney has had very little real pull over the past few years. I’m inclined to think we won’t see any significant change in the company’s current course of action until Eisner steps down – and there would have to be a really strong personality to take his place for that to work. I’m definitely not a fan of everything the company’s done over the last decade or so, but on the whole I think Eisner’s done more good than harm.

[Captain_Amazing]

Well, Eisner has wanted Disney out for years. I’m thinking Brother Bear was what finally got him out. The film didn’t get great reviews. I know it grossed 77 mil, so far, but does anyone have any information about production costs?

[Sublight]

My Disney history is a bit shaky, but wasn’t Roy the guy in charge during that gawdawful period in between The Jungle Book and The Little Mermaid?

[Captain_Amazing]

New news at Disney…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26802-2003Dec1.html

Walt Disney Co. board member Stanley P. Gold resigned his seat yesterday and called on chief executive Michael D. Eisner to do the same, joining fellow dissident director Roy E. Disney, who quit on Sunday after battling Eisner over the direction of the media giant.

[rjung]

Vote for “more of the same”. Faras I can see, Roy isn’t the one who’s been dragging down the company for the last decade or so.

[MsRobyn]

Coincidentally, Stanley Gold was my neighbor growing up. Then he became an entertainment lawyer and left the wilds of the north San Fernando Valley for Beverly Hills. In fact, my parents were at their kids’ bar and bat mitzvahs.

Robin

[DMark]

Having worked at one of the major studios (not Disney), I can tell you that most considered Disney the worst place to work of all the major studios. Bad pay for the average schmuck, high turnover, lots of backstabbing and blame throwing…all in all, a horrible place to work. Thus I am not surprised to see the current turmoil.

Maybe this will be a good thing - get some new life, and a sorely needed new attitude in that place.