A candid conversation concerning the latest headaches at Disney in the second Iger era, with former M&A banker Bill Cohan and Hollywood insider Matt Belloni.
Matt Belloni: Hi Bill, it’s been a while. It’s certainly been a loooong few months for Bob Iger in his return stint as Disney C.E.O. He’s laid off about 7,000 employees; pledged to slash costs by $5 billion; fended off investor Nelson Peltz and his disgruntled mini-me Ike Perlmutter; sued the governor of Florida; watched as the cable bundle that propped him up in his first C.E.O. tenure now drags him down; distanced himself from Hulu and then apparently re-committed himself to spending billions to take the platform out from Comcast; Pixar and Disney Animation can’t buy themselves a hit (and at $200 million a pop for these movies, they’re definitely trying). Oh, and his screenwriters are on strike. The Disney stock is flat for the year, and lower than when this supposed “savior” returned in November. When you look at the Disney balance sheet, what worries you most?