Bob Iger is currently the CEO of the Walt Disney Company again after handing the reins over to ex-CEO Bob Chapek. However, a new report by the New York Times gives insight into the feud between the two Bobs and it does not paint a flattering image of Iger. Instead, Iger comes across as petty, passive-aggressive, and vindictive, making him seem like the “mean girl” of the Walt Disney Company.
It was reportedly so bad that Bryan Freedman, an LA lawyer, told the New York Times that he had advised Chapek that he had “a very strong legal claim against Bob Iger for illegally interfering with his ability to do his job.” But Chapek refused to sue as his family was a “Disney family,” so “he couldn’t bring himself to file a lawsuit that might hurt the company.”
What did Bob Iger Reportely do?
While Iger agreed to the decision to replace Bob Iger with Bob Chapek, he seemingly had reservations from the beginning. First, he wanted to ensure that he stayed on as the Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of the Board and then that his successor would report directly to him and the board instead of just the Walt Disney Board.
The announcement of Chapek’s promotion made it obvious that there might be issues. During the press conference, Iger looked sad, like someone kicked his puppy, and Chapek looked scared. It turns out that was because Iger allegedly didn’t like the attention being off of himself and Chapek knew his boss’s body language and knew he was not happy.
Chapek’s tenure was fraught with a power struggle. Iger couldn’t let go of control and Chapek didn’t listen enough.
Of course this did not go over well with the current CEO, Bob Chapek.
Later on Chapek was accused of missing meetings, but he claims that he was not told about the meetings.
“He insisted that he hadn’t skipped meetings but rather that Mr. Iger had scheduled them without telling him. Mr. Chapek said Mr. Iger had ceded little authority, something Mr. Chapek said he had accepted without complaining.”
According to reports, confirmed by Bob Chapek’s representative, but denied by Disney’s representative, Bob Iger believed that he had the option to remove Chapek and return as CEO if he didn’t feel it was working out.
“Mr. Iger told him that he couldn’t handle the truth, and then proceeded to say that before the board had agreed to name Mr. Chapek chief executive, the directors had assured Mr. Iger that, if he didn’t think it was working out, he could fire Mr. Chapek and return as chief executive anytime he wanted. (Given the dual reporting structure, it is unclear whether Mr. Iger had that authority.)”
The Board had to step in numerous times to play referee to the Bobs.
Iger’s refusal to clearly give feedback led to further issues for Chapek
Sadly, the issues continued to get worse. Bob Chapek decided to restructure the company to put an emphasis on streaming and “direct to consumer” offerings due to the pandemic. Ahead of announcing the new Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED) Chapek allegedly got support from the Disney board and spent a lot of time discussing his ideas with Bob Iger.
The new DMED would take power away from the creatives but it would release content on Disney+ at a time when theaters were closed due to the pandemic and Iger seemed unenthused but did not object to Chapek. Instead Iger told Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman that they would not be moving forward with the restructuring, just minutes after Chapek left a discussion with him thinking he had the go ahead to restructure.
“By early October, after a two-hour meeting at Mr. Iger’s house, Mr. Chapek thought he’d gotten Mr. Iger’s blessing. He was in his car heading back to Westlake Village when Mr. Bergman called him. “Iger just told me we’re not doing the reorganization,” Mr. Bergman said, according to Mr. Chapek. “He said he hates it.”
Mr. Chapek was dumbfounded. He’d left Mr. Iger just 10 minutes earlier. “No, it’s on. We’re doing it,” Mr. Chapek replied.
Mr. Chapek said he immediately called Mr. Iger, and asked if he’d said that to Mr. Bergman. “Yes, I hate it,” Mr. Iger confirmed.
“Why didn’t you say that to me?” Mr. Chapek asked.
Mr. Iger didn’t answer.“
Chapek did it anyway and the stock climbed. The board backed Chapek at the time and Iger was reportedly angry.
The “Black Widow” debacle
By the time “Black Widow” was released theaters were reopened, with social distancing mandates, but many were not returing yet. Chapek did a split release with the film in theaters and on Disney+. Scarlett Johansson’s contract, which was created pre-pandemic, demanded a theatrical only release with her full pay decided by the box office. When that didn’t happen she wanted $50 million more. When it was refused she filed a lawsuit.
Bob Iger was overseeing creative operations and he released a statment that Chapek also worked on and contributed to. In the statement Disney called the lawsuit “sad and distressing” and accused the actress of having a “callous disregard” for theaters and customers due to the pandemic. Chapek took most of the blame from the media, which furthered the rift.
Iger Finally Leaves But Reportedly Continued to Sew Discord
When Iger did finally leave the Walt Disney Company he and his wife Willow Bay decided to throw their own farewell party at their home. Reports indicated that they chose a day that Bob Chapek was set to travel to Orlando, but he canceled and attended the party.
From the get-go guests knew there would be drama. When Chapek arrived at the same time as Thomas Schumacher from Disney’s Broadway division, Bay welcomed Schumacher warmly but allegedly barely acknowledged Chapek saying she saw him all the time.
During Iger’s speech reminiscing on his start as an assistant on ABC sports where he covered dirt-track racing in Terra Haute, Indiana he stopped to make a dig at Bob Iger who was from Indiana saying “That’s your area, isn’t it Bob? You’d know all about dirt tracks.”
Even at Iger’s last meeting where he was Chairman of the Board he allegedly made comments against Bob Chapek, who was not at the meeting.
He reportedly did not go as far as ask for Chapek’s dismissal but said this:
“Mr. Iger asserted that under Mr. Chapek, the collegial culture he’d built over 15 years was crumbling. Disney was a company that depended first and foremost on creativity, and Mr. Chapek’s DMED reorganization had damaged Disney’s creative engines. The company, he said, had become distracted by a deep rift — Mr. Chapek and his allies on one side, Disney’s creative executives and the Hollywood talent community on the other.”
Bob Iger’s contract was up and he left the Walt Disney Company.
He didn’t stop after that.
When the issue arose with the Parental Rights in Education Bill with Florida Chapek reportedly wanted to stay out of politics and worried the company was becoming to partison, alienating a large part of their audience. The board and Chairman Susan Arnold agreed with Chapek. After President Biden put out a statement against the bill Iger also put out a statment agreeing with Biden.
Fearing the growing sentiment against the bill and employee backlash (mostly in the creative departments) Chapek and board agreed to sign the Human Rights Campaign letter that other companies were signing to keep the company “safe.”
Chapek did not sign the letter intitially which led to more issues. At that point he and the board agreed to sign and donate $5 million to the organization. Then the CEO took it further with a letter to employees saying he let them down and would do better. He stoped political donations. This set off Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and eventually led to the Reedy Creek situation.
During this time Iger told CNN “To me, it wasn’t about politics. It is about what is right and what is wrong, and that just seemed wrong.”
This of course caused Chapek to be angry again.
Iger said he put Chapek and Disney behing him, but he didn’t.
Even after Iger “moved on” and would reportedly not initiate conversation about Chapek, he didn’t shy away from offering his negative opinions when asked.
“Mr. Iger insisted he’d put Disney behind him and vowed not to talk about Mr. Chapek unless others brought him up. Evidently, many did. Mr. Chapek fielded a steady drumbeat of unnerving calls from people who had met with Mr. Iger. They told Mr. Chapek that Mr. Iger had heaped criticism on him and wanted to talk about little else.”
When the situation came to a head after the 2021-2022 Q4 investor report in November 2022. Both Disney Entertainment co-chairs, Alan Bergman and Dana Walden talked to Iger and Walden asked him if he would return. Iger said he would if asked. The Board voted unanimously to bring Iger back. His passive-aggressive behavior worked and on November 20, 2022 it was announced that Chapek was fired and Iger was once again CEO.
Chapek was not completely innocent and made plenty of mistakes which led to big company wide issues like the loss of Reedy Creek, but it does seem like he spent his entire time as CEO under the thumb of Bob Iger. Frankly I would have expected better behavior out of Iger, who was seemingly very worried about things like power and restaurant reservations?
Hopefully the next CEO has a much better time and the Disney Board can make sure they have the proper support while being allowed to do their jobs without the shadow of Iger.
What do you think?
This article is based on reports from The New York Times. We are reporting and commenting on their article and can not confirm or deny their report.
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