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Barbara Walters Retirement Official: Video

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday May 13, 2013 @ 9:52am PDTTags: ABC, Barbra Walters, Bob Iger, The View

UPDATED: This is one our Nellie Andreeva told you was going to happen back in March. It became official this morning on The View, the show Barbara Walters co-created. “In the summer of 2014, a year from now, I plan to retire from appearing on television at all”, she said after showing a clip montage of her 52 years in the business. “It has been an absolutely joyful, rewarding, challenging, fascinating and occasionally bumpy ride. And I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m perfectly healthy. This is my decision. I’ve been thinking about it a long time. This is what I want to do”. She added: “I will come back, I’m not going into the sunset.” Walters said she will continue as executive producer of The View with Bill Geddie. (Continued below)

Disney’s Bob Iger was one of several Disney and ABC brass on hand for the announcement. “What are we going to do?” Walters asked the chairman and CEO during the show (Iger is retiring in 2015). “The two of us love to dance”, he responded. “I say we go on Dancing With The Stars”. ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney, ABC News president Ben Sherwood and ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee joined Iger to watch Walters say goodbye.

Related: Barbara Walters To Announce Retirement

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UPDATE: Disney Confirms Layoffs At Studio Following Internal Review

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday April 10, 2013 @ 9:25am PDTTags: Bob Iger, Disney, The Avengers, Walt Disney Studios

UPDATE, 9:25 AM: Disney has just released a statement confirming our scoop about job cuts at Walt Disney Studios, which are now underway.

As part of an ongoing review to ensure that the Studios’ operational structure and economics align with the demands of the current marketplace, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our staffing levels in several divisions of the Studio.

PREVIOUS, MONDAY AM: Disney shares are trading around their all-time high. But Wednesday looks like the day Disney will drop the ax for its expected layoffs. I have learned that about 150 people at Walt Disney Studios will receive pink slips. Sources say the cuts will come from across all of Disney Studios businesses, including the music and NYC-based theatre departments. At this point it looks like a one-time round of layoffs, but an overall reorganization affecting other divisions is planned for later this year and that could include more cuts. They’re coming as a result of an internal review ordered late last year by CEO Bob Iger and CFO Jay Rasulo to pinpoint superfluous positions and increase efficiency. But the company is already doing well with mega-blockbusters including The Avengers. Net profits for the fiscal year that ended in September increased 18% to $5.7 billion on revenues of $42.3 billion.

Related: Disney Fiscal Q1 Earnings & Revenues Beat Expectations Read More »

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Hollywood Power Players Hosting April Fundraiser For Newark Mayor’s Undeclared Senate Race

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday March 14, 2013 @ 6:08pm PDTTags: Bob Iger, Corey Booker, Hollywood fundraisers, J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Weintraub, Steven Spielberg

Cory Booker hasn’t officially said he’s running to become New Jersey’s next Senator but Hollywood is planning to shovel money into his campaign treasure chest. Anointing Booker as Hollywood’s new favorite politician, invites went out this week for a “Special Evening In LA” April 25 fundraiser for the Newark Mayor at the Beverly Hills home of producer Jerry Weintraub and girlfriend, producer Susan Ekins. The event has a marquee host list that cuts across party lines and into deep wallets. It costs $5,000 a ticket to attend the fundraiser with the money going to Cory Booker For Senate. The event is one of eight the telegenic Democrat has lined up in the next two months in anticipation of a 2014 run to replace departing fellow Democrat Frank Lautenberg in the heavily Blue state. The Beverly Hills fundraiser certainly shows that backing a potential winner cuts across party lines. Republicans like Bush family confidante Weintraub and Bruce Willis are listed on the invite but so are avowed Democrats like Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was one of the largest single contributors to Barack Obama’s reelection, Steven Spielberg and new Star Wars director J.J. Abrams and their wives Kate Capshaw and Katie McGrath.

Related: President Obama Thanks Katzenbergs For “Tireless” Support
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Bob Iger: There’s “No Evidence” It’s A Problem When A CEO Is Also Chairman

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday March 12, 2013 @ 1:11pm PDTTags: Bob Iger, Disney

The Disney CEO and chairman seems bemused by last week’s effort by shareholder rights advocates to split the company’s two top jobs when he steps down. “This is essentially a cause looking for a problem,” … Read More »

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Will Disney Shareholders Challenge Iger Tomorrow?

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday March 5, 2013 @ 1:57pm PSTTags: Bob Iger, corporate governance, Disney

The Walt Disney CompanyUnder more normal circumstances, the Orpheum Theater in Phoenix would briefly replace Disneyland tomorrow as Disney‘s “happiest place on earth.” The company’s stock is trading around an all time high as shareholders prepare to convene there for their annual meeting. But attendees instead are girding for a fight over resolutions that could shape the way Disney’s run, especially after Bob Iger steps down in June 2016. Many shareholders support a movement sweeping corporate America to democratize governance policies, giving the people who ostensibly own a company more flexibility to check the power of CEOs and directors. Disney infuriated them in 2011 by agreeing to make Iger chairman as well as CEO, which critics say puts him in charge of the team that’s supposed to judge his performance. And the company further enraged shareholder rights advocates recently when it gave Iger a 20.3% raise with a package for fiscal 2012 worth $40M — even though 43% of Disney shareholders opposed management in the federally mandated say-on-pay advisory vote at last year’s annual meeting.

That set the stage for tomorrow: California teachers’ fund CalPERS, and proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, are among the groups asking shareholders to oppose Disney in the say-on-pay vote. They also support two shareholder resolutions that Disney opposes. One would enable some stock owners to nominate candidates for the board — an idea that’ll be raised at several companies this year. The second urges the board to amend the company’s governance guidelines to prevent a CEO after Iger from also serving as chairman, except under brief and unusual circumstances. Read More »

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Disney Shareholders Group To Vote Against Bob Iger And Pay Plan At Annual Meeting

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday February 14, 2013 @ 12:03pm PSTTags: Bob Iger, Disney

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System owns about 5.3 million shares of Disney stock worth $263M, which only represents 0.3% of the company’s shares. But the group reports ahead of Disney’s March 6 shareholders meeting in Arizona that … Read More »

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Disney To Release ‘Star Wars’ Spinoffs Based On Individual Characters

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday February 5, 2013 @ 1:53pm PSTTags: Bob Iger, Disney, Star Wars

CEO Bob Iger made the disclosure in an interview on CNBC. He says that Larry Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are working on them — Deadline revealed exclusively back in November that they were getting involved  — and they’re in addition to Disney‘s planned Star Wars VII, VIII … Read More »

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Bob Iger Calls MagicBand Criticism “Ludicrous”

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday January 28, 2013 @ 3:26pm PSTTags: Bob Iger, Disney

Bob Iger today told a Massachusetts congressman that his privacy issue concerns about new technology being introduced at Disney theme parks are bunk. “We are offended by the ludicrous and utterly ill-informed assertion in your letter dated January 24, 2013, that we would in any way haphazardly or recklessly introduce a program that manipulates children, or wantonly puts their safety at risk,” the Disney chairman and CEO wrote in a letter (read it in full below) Monday to Ed Markey.

The program to which Iger is referring is the company’s MyMagic+MagicBands digital venture set to launch this spring at Disney World. As Iger outlined last week during a Q&A with Brian Grazer, the initiative enables theme park visitors to upload their personal information into digitally enhanced wristbands so they can reserve time on rides and in restaurants as well as upload birthday information. From Disney’s point of view, the MagicBand tracks guest interaction and purchasing behavior while in the parks. Read More »

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Bob Iger Taking Closer Look At Violence In Disney Video Games

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday January 23, 2013 @ 3:56pm PSTTags: Bob Iger, Disney

Jen Yamato is a Deadline contributor.

Disney‘s Bob Iger said he’s taking measures to monitor violence in his company’s video game interests following the Newtown school shooting and President Obama’s subsequent gun initiatives, which include a study of the impact of violent video games. The chairman and CEO said at a Q&A with Brian Grazer today during a HRTS Newsmakers Luncheon that he met yesterday within the company’s ranks “to take stock in everything we’ve got that can be considered near the line or over the line”. Iger refused to speak with press before and after the hour-long chat, which was moderated by longtime pal Grazer, although a rep tells Deadline any official plans to review the titles have not been solidified. “Fortunately at Disney there’s very little [violent content], but I still want to make sure we’re asking ourselves the right questions in terms of that standard,” Iger said, “and also [ensure] we’re willing to be a part of a dialogue in today’s world that I think is pretty necessary in terms of what our role is and what our role should be”.
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Disney’s Bob Iger Collects $40.2M Compensation For 2012, A 20.3% Raise

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Friday January 18, 2013 @ 2:12pm PSTTags: Bob Iger, Disney

The company says in its proxy filed at the SEC this evening that in meetings with shareholders “there was broad agreement with the Compensation Committee’s assessment that Mr. Iger’s performance as chief executive officer has been excellent.” Disney shares appreciated 76% in the fiscal year that ended September 30, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 30%. The company also says that in the previous three years Bob Iger‘s compensation was “near or below the median compensation awarded to his peers.” Directors responded by raising all components of Iger’s compensation compensation for the fiscal year that ended in September: It amounted to $2.5M in salary, $9.5M in stock awards, $7.8M in option awards, $16.5M in non-equity incentives, $3.1M change in pension value, and $800,700 for other compensation. The “other” category includes $574,331 for security and $190,439 for personal air travel. The company says it requires Iger to use the corporate jet for his personal travel “for security reasons.” It also notes that the present value of the pension rose in part because interest rates dropped and “does not result in any increase in the benefits payable to participants.” Still, Disney paid Iger like a rock star: He made 6.3 times the median pay for the four other executives named in the proxy. Corporate governance watchdogs say that CEO pay is out of whack when it exceeds three times the average for other top officers. The second-highest-paid exec, CFO Jay Rasulo, made $12.2M, a raise of 10.2%. Disney shareholders will have a chance to voice their opinions about the pay package, and elect directors, at the annual meeting to be held March 6 in Phoenix. Read More »

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Disney’s Bob Iger Nets $17.9M In Stock Sale

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday November 16, 2012 @ 9:54pm PSTTags: Big Deals Film, Big Deals TV, Bob Iger, Walt Disney Co

Walt Disney Chairman/CEO Bog Iger exercised options on 1 million shares of company stock and sold them for about $47.4 million, netting about $17.9 million, Bloomberg reports. Iger paid $29.51 to exercise each option and sold them for an … Read More »

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Disney’s Bob Iger Wants TV Ad Sales To Cover 7 Days Of Views

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday November 8, 2012 @ 3:38pm PSTTags: Big Deals TV, Bob Iger, Disney, TV Advertising

Disney CEO Bob Iger echoed CBS’ Les Moonves in advocating a change in TV ad sales to include all ad views in the seven days after a show airs — up from the current three. … Read More »

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Bob Iger & George Lucas On Disney-Lucasfilm: Video

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday October 30, 2012 @ 2:45pm PDTTags: Bob Iger, Disney, George Lucas

Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger and George Lucas break down their new deal.

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Disney’s Iger: Three New ‘Star Wars’ Movies Mapped Out; TV Plans Too

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday October 30, 2012 @ 2:30pm PDTTags: Bob Iger, Lucasfilm, Star Wars, The Walt Disney Company

Disney plans to bring not just one but three new Star Wars films to the big screen, and the companies “have a pretty extensive treatment of the next three movies,” chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a conference call announcing its deal to acquire Lucasfilm. “Episode 7 will be released in 2015, the first under the Disney/Lucas banner,” he said, with Episode 8 and Episode 9 to follow. Disney plans to release a new Star Wars movie “every two to three years.” Disney also intends to pursue the Star Wars brand in their parks, with games and, “other initiatives,” CFO Jay Rasulo said. “Being that there hasn’t been a Star Wars film since 2005, a lot of the value we attribute to the deal is to come, added Rasulo. ”This gives us a great footprint in the consumer market, and we already had a good one,” said Iger of the licensing possibilities that the Star Wars franchise could represent for Disney.

Related: Disney Buys Lucasfilm; More ‘Star Wars’ Movies Planned Read More »

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Disney And Marvel Do Damage Control After Media Scrutiny Of Big Boss Ike Perlmutter

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday August 17, 2012 @ 6:17pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Bob Iger, Disney Marvel

EXCLUSIVE… UPDATE: Sources now tell me that all three female executives in employments disputes with the Walt Disney Co have settled – including one today. This is many months after the women lost their jobs in a Department Of Consumer Products reorganization set in motion nearly a year ago by Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter who is Disney’s 2nd largest shareholder. Former DCP head of fashion and home products Pam Lifford, former chief financial officer Anne Gates, and former DCP HR  exec Susan Cole Hill were all represented by the same attorney with  the Pasadena law firm Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson and Rennick which has sued Disney in other employee rights cases. According to my sources, the three women, who are all African Americans, referred to themselves as “The Help” – a reference to last summer’s hit DreamWorks movie distributed by Disney and set during the civil rights movement about black maids in Mississippi.

The reorganization took place in September 2011 but the negotiations for the exit settlements dragged on. Some insiders claim the law firm didn’t return Disney’s calls because it first wanted a story damaging to Perlmutter to appear in the media. An article appeared on Thursday, and Disney and Marvel and Perlmutter now are in damage control mode. Financial Times LA-based correspondent Matthew Garrahan broke the news about these three African-American female execs, their respective job status after their boss Andy Mooney was replaced as the head of DCP, and their hiring an attorney. At the time he wrote that only one of the three women had settled with Disney.

But the FT story also reported that, when African-American actor Terrence Howard was replaced by African-American actor Don Cheadle in the role of  Colonel Jim Rhodes for Iron Man 2, ”Perlmutter apparently told Mr. Mooney the change cut costs. He allegedly added words to the effect that no one would notice because black people ‘look  the same’,”  Garrahan wrote. A Marvel spokesperson told the FT in a statement: “Mr. Perlmutter and all  of Marvel have a long record of diversity in the workplace and on movie sets around the world as evidenced by both Mr. Perlmutter’s own history and Marvel’s management team.”

There’s also conflicting descriptions of a formal complaint with Disney
Human Resources about Perlmutter filed by former CFO Anne Gates before she left the company. Several sources told me it was a racial complaint but others say it wasn’t race-related.

The last thing Disney wants is bad press about the reclusive (Forbes found this 1985 photo, right), opinionated, parsimonious, and incredibly successful 69-year-old Perlmutter. (The Los Angeles Times, ever obliging to advertisers, didn’t even mention the FT accusations in its clip-job story about Perlmutter appearing later Thursday.) Perlmutter’s influence inside Disney is gigantic ever since his $4B sale of Marvel to Mouse House CEO Bob Iger in 2009. I reported back in April that one of the reasons Rich Ross was summarily fired as chairman of the Walt Disney Studios was because the Marvel Entertainment CEO was a very vocal detractor. The comic book, TV, and film company boss is a notoriously tough customer eager to back-seat manage everything. (As I quoted a source saying in April: “Iger has real problems. Bob thought he could handle him. But Ike is uncharmable.”)

Related: Why Rich Ross Was Fired At Disney

High-ranking Marvel sources today tell me that the FT‘s implication that Perlmutter is racist is ”proposterous”. The insiders also claim, about what Perlmutter allegedly said to Mooney, “he [Mooney] never complained about it at the time and then only 5 months later”. Other insiders acknowledge that “it looks bad” that the African-American trio were reorganized out of their jobs but claim the FT‘s information is coming from “disgruntled employees” who have tried to “peddle accusations against Ike” to other media outlets for many months. Trying to give me some context about Perlmutter, one insider made the point that he was “of a different generation and an Israeli immigrant and owner of a private company” whose blunt style is at odds with a public corporate environment like Disney. But these people who know him all flatly deny that he has demonstrated racism.
Read More »

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Cars Land Revs Up For Friday Unveiling At New Disney California Adventure: Video

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday June 14, 2012 @ 12:53pm PDTTags: Bob Iger, Disney, Disney California Adventure, John Lasseter

The public is about to get a first look at the revamp of Disney’s 11-year-old California Adventure — including the Pixar-engineered Cars Land and other upgrades. The face-lift, which took five years, aims to fix what Disney CEO Bob Iger once called a “brand eyesore.” The company also hopes to boost attendance at the underperforming venue, which is situated across from Disneyland in Anaheim. Disney reportedly spent $1 billion on renovations. Goofy’s Sky School replaced the Mulholland Madness roller coaster. An animatronic attraction, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure ride, replaced the Golden Dreams audio tour of California. And the Golden Gate Bridge was replaced by Buena Vista Street, which attempts to re-create the Los Angeles of the 1920s when Walt Disney first came to town and lived and worked in Los Feliz. Read More »

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Disney Unveils Details Of Its Anti-Obesity Ad And Information Initiative

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday June 5, 2012 @ 8:13am PDTTags: Bob Iger, Disney, Michelle Obama

UPDATE: Michelle Obama was on hand for the company’s announcement in Washington. She praised Disney for listening to parents who are more and more concerned about what their kids are eating. She said Disney has seen momentum building across the country on behalf of children’s health and has realized that what is good for children can also be good business. She also said she’s getting letters everyday from kids who tell her they’re eating healthier, getting more exercise and “loving every minute of it.”

PREVIOUS, 8:13 AM: The news was already out, but it’s important — and this makes it official.

BURBANK, Calif., June 5, 2012 – Building on its landmark nutrition guidelines established in 2006, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) today became the first major media company to introduce new standards for food advertising on programming targeting kids and families. This significant undertaking marks the latest step in Disney’s partnership with parents to inspire kids to lead healthier lifestyles. Under Disney’s new standards, all food and beverage products advertised, sponsored, or promoted on Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, Radio Disney, and Disney-owned online destinations oriented to families with younger children will be required by 2015 to meet Disney’s nutrition guidelines. The nutrition guidelines are aligned to federal standards, promote fruit and vegetable consumption and call for limiting calories and reducing saturated fat, sodium, and sugar.

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Disney’s Kid Shows To Limit Junk-Food Ads: Reuters

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday June 4, 2012 @ 10:28pm PDTTags: Advertising, Bob Iger, Disney

Disney CEO Bob Iger and First Lady Michelle Obama are poised to make the announcement tomorrow that the company will stop accepting some unhealthy-food ads on its TV and radio shows and websites aimed at kids. Reuters … Read More »

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Disney CEO Wants Studio To Address “Inconsistent” Results In Live-Action Films

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday May 30, 2012 @ 10:36am PDTTags: Bob Iger, Marvel Studios, Pixar, Walt Disney Studios

Disney MoviesNo word yet from Bob Iger about who might run Walt Disney Studios after Rich Ross was pushed aside as chairman last month. But the CEO told the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference today that his … Read More »

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