Disney announced this Sunday that it had appointed Bob Iger as the company’s new CEO, a position he left to Bob Chapek in 2020 after 15 years in office.
Iger, 71, agreed to return to lead the North American company for two years, aiming to establish a strategy of “renewed growth,” Disney stressed in a statement.
The new CEO will also be given the task of finding a successor together with the board of directors.
The company, founded in 1923, has not specified the reasons for Bob Chapek’s departure.
“We thank Bob Chapek for his services to Disney (…), including guiding the company through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” chairman Susan Arnold said in the statement.
Bob Chapek took office in early 2020, right when the pandemic started. He had to manage the closure of theme parks and cinemas, but also the expansion of the streaming platform.
The results of this activity were released recently, with Disney+ still gaining subscribers in the third quarter, but the California group’s “streaming” platforms (Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu) posted an operating loss of nearly $1.5 billion (1.46 billion euros). ).
Disney’s share price fell more than 13% the day after these results were announced in early November.
At the head of the company from 2005 to 2020, Bob Iger transformed the entertainment empire, between acquiring the animation studio Pixar, in 2006, Marvel, in 2009, or most of the assets of the former group 21st Century Fox, in 2019 , ending the term ends with the launch of Disney+.
Source: DN
