The surprise return of Bob Iger as Disney CEO, replacing his own replacement Bob Chapek, is not without precedent in corporate America.
In a memo to staffers announcing the shakeup, Iger framed his actions as an effort to restore power to creative executives at Disney.
Disney’s CFO Christine McCarthy told investors she lacked confidence in Chapek after a Nov. 8 conference call about the company’s worse than expected quarterly loss of $1.5 billion linked to its Disney+ streaming service.
Despite the steep financial pitfall, Chapek appeared upbeat and insisted the company was “on a path to profitable streaming business that generates shareholder value long into the future.”
By Friday of the following week, Disney execs were seeing if Iger would return to his old job of 15 years in order to replace Chapek, the paper reported.
Chairperson of Disney’s board Susan Arnold called Iger up and asked if he’d consider coming back to run the Mouse House once again, people with inside knowledge told the Journal.
