[PDG Disney] Bob Iger (2005-20??)

How Bob Iger works
Disney's CEO tells Fortune's Devin Leonard his efficiency tips: get up at 4:30, lose the driver, and put history to work.
By Devin Leonard, senior writer


NEW YORK (Fortune Magazine) -- When Bob Iger became Disney's CEO in 2005, he quickly established himself as the anti-Michael Eisner. He made peace with his feisty predecessor's adversaries. He acted swiftly to make ABC hits like Desperate Housewives available online. And he oversaw the release of Disney's High School Musical movies, which have contributed to operating income growth of 20 percent during Iger's tenure.

Disney's (Charts, Fortune 500) stock price, too, is up 36 percent since he took over, but the king of the Magic Kingdom has his challenges. The Hollywood writers' strike threatens to erode ABC's ratings resurgence, and the slowing economy could hurt theme park attendance.

How does Iger, 55, hope to tackle those issues - and still get home for dinner with his wife and two sons, as he regularly does when in L.A.? He shared his efficiency tips over a cup of coffee with Fortune's Devin Leonard.

1. Get up before dawn. I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world. It's a time of day when I can be very productive without too much interruption. I ride a bike and use aerobic equipment twice a week, and work out with a trainer, lifting weights. It's a good time to think. I believe that exercise relieves stress and contributes to an improvement in stamina, which in a job like this you absolutely need.

2. Be punctual. Meetings need to start on time. I'm zealous about that because my day needs to be managed like clockwork. If people are late for meetings, the meetings tend to go late, which throws off my agenda thereafter. I frequently start the meeting even if all the people expected to be in attendance aren't there. I don't need to say to people, "Be on time." They know.

3. Lose your driver. I drive myself to and from work. I love the privacy. It's one less person to talk with. I'm not antisocial. While I'm going home, I talk on the phone. Plus I love listening to music. Classic rock is always at the top of the list, from the Stones to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. I have a fondness for jazz, particularly for jazz singers, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald all the way through the Sinatra era.

4. Write notes. It's rare that I will spend time with our talent. But I try to let them know if I've appreciated something they've done, like when Katherine Heigl from Grey's Anatomy - whom I've never met - won an Emmy. That's when I'll take my fountain pen and use my trusty Disney stationery, and write a nice, simple note. I think that goes a long way with people.

5. Put history to work. When I was 12, a friend of my dad's carved a beautiful Winston Churchill figurine out of wood for me. It's been with me since. Churchill had a real appreciation for the balance between heritage and innovation. There's something to be said for that at Disney.

We had a meeting recently with [Disney's animation chief] John Lasseter about Mickey Mouse, and we wanted to do research for it. I downloaded old Walt Disney shorts onto my iPhone, and in the white space of my life I watched the classic Mickey films so we could think about what Mickey's personality and his voice should be like in today's world.

There's huge value to our heritage. But it needs to be carefully balanced with innovation - and not just what is new today, but what will be new in the future.

Il doit avoir des journées de ouf ce mec! Mais ça paye (en tout cas pour nous parce que niveau vie de famille, ça doit être difficile)! Se lever à 4h30 tous les matins chapeau!^^

Un nouvel article sur Bob Iger paru dans Variety:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981322.html?categoryid=1&cs=1&nid=2562

Extreme makeover: Mouse edition


Disney's radical re-invention raises questions


Peering at the box office charts the other day, I found myself asking, How did the bastion of Mickey Mouse suddenly morph into the home of "Hannah Montana" and "High School Musical"?

I don't really believe in the efficacy of corporate makeovers, but the radical re-invention of the Disney empire will surely inspire a myriad of business school case studies. It seemed only a couple of years ago that Disney was becoming the ultimate in bland brands. Even the core animation business, the plaything of old Walt himself, was mired in mediocrity.

When Robert Iger was brought in as the new CEO two years ago, few predicted that anything dramatic would happen. Iger, we were told, was a company man -- one not attuned to shaking things up. Having come of age in the tumultuous era of Michael Eisner, Iger was more likely to covet "peace at last."

This analysis proved both right and wrong: Right, in that Iger has indeed turned out to be a cool-headed strategist, a "company man" who avoids noisy confrontations and never postures in the press; wrong, in that Iger clearly has charted a bold program of change and is fiercely determined to carry it out.

He doesn't fulminate like his predecessor, but those who deal with him daily testify that there's nothing mousy about the King of the Mouse House.

The Iger Era got off to a controversial start. The new CEO clearly paid too high a price for Pixar -- and yet, again, he didn't.
In the two years since the acquisition, Pixar has put wind behind the Disney sails. Pixar's creative zeal has contributed not only in animation but also in theme parks, videogames and other arenas: Witness the $1.1 billion makeover of Disney's California Adventure theme park with Toy Story Mania as its centerpiece.

Despite concerns about a recession, the company is betting billions on cruise ships, consumer products and other sectors not directly related to film or TV. In theme parks, as with its iTunes initiative, Disney is steadfast in courting younger, digitally savvy audiences. Culturally, it's a big leap from "Winnie the Pooh" to "Cars" and Pirates.
Even in film, the Iger commitment is both brand-centric and opportunistic. There is less product, but more emphasis on the Disneyfied opportunities of the marketplace ranging from the sophistication of a "Ratatouille" to the teen frenzy of a 3-D "Hannah." The byword seems to be: Less is more.

Despite these transformative times at Disney, there's been an absence of corporate pronouncements. Indeed, Iger's behind-the-scenes style has lately been in evidence during the tense negotiations to end the writers' strike. When most Hollywood CEOs seemed to duck for cover, it was Iger and Peter Chernin, the chief operating officer of Fox, who took on personal stewardship of the talks even as the prospect of a protracted stalemate loomed darkly.

"Bob Iger was personally appalled by the possibility that thousands of Hollywood artisans could face unemployment for months," says the top executive of a rival company. "He saw that the industry lacked focus and he invested more of his time and energy than anyone else in settling this mess."

In the face of all this, I asked Iger the other day if he wanted to philosophize about the problems facing Hollywood as well as the continued pace of change at Disney. Typically, Iger demurred.

Très intéressant, mais encore une fois en anglais!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/business/11iger.html

LATE February at the world's largest media conglomerate was a particularly challenging time for Robert A. Iger: problems were sprouting all around him.

On a Friday, staffers gave Mr. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, a 30-minute rundown of final plans for a new multimillion-dollar attraction at the Disneyland Resort. He hated it. By Monday, a British theater chain had stepped up threats to boycott ''Alice in Wonderland'' over Mr. Iger's decision to fast-track the film's DVD release. And then, at about 1 a.m. on Wednesday, he got an e-mail message: ''URGENT: Dancing Mickey.'' A new electronic toy, a boogie-woogie Mickey Mouse, had encountered a hiccup, threatening its availability for Christmas. In each case, Mr. Iger found a solution, sometimes cajoling his people to do more and sometimes intervening more directly. ''I like our people to solve problems on their own, and they usually do,'' he says later. ''But I will do a deep dive if there is a lot at stake or if there are creative challenges.'' Deep is not a word that most people used to describe Mr. Iger when he took control of Disney five years ago. In fact, he was widely dismissed as little more than a stuffed suit who might have had the skills to fix a highly dysfunctional company but lacked creative sizzle or big-picture brilliance to raise its game. His predecessor Michael D. Eisner endorsed him, but faintly -- at least according to ''DisneyWar,'' the 2005 book that chronicled Mr. Eisner's fall from power. The new take on Mr. Iger? Let us count the ways: One of the most aggressive dealmakers in media (the $7 billion purchase of Pixar, the animation studio, and the $4 billion acquisition of Marvel, the comic book publisher and movie studio); a risk-taker who isn't afraid to make decisions that rankle Disney's own troops (ripping apart the wiring for how the company does business in Europe); and a guy who, more than any of his big-media counterparts, is retooling antiquated industry practice, particularly when it comes to movie-making. In short: blockbuster C.E.O. ''The spectrum of points of view this job requires is incredible, and Bob is great at it,'' says Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, who became Disney's largest shareholder -- and a board member -- after the Pixar acquisition. He said that the quality of Disney's products had improved, adding: ''The amount of energy and passion at Disney has increased dramatically. The business lines were really in boxes before Bob empowered them.'' Mr. Iger, 58, has wasted little time enacting major changes at Disney. A reorganization of the company's movie studio last fall brought the departure of over a dozen top managers -- including the unit's popular chairman, Dick Cook. Mr. Iger shocked Hollywood by installing a television executive as his replacement. Shortly after that, when recession-battered retailers were still cutting back, Mr. Iger went the other way, unveiling an aggressive plan to overhaul the 340 Disney Stores at a cost of about $1 million each. A month later, Mr. Iger had his C.F.O. and the head of Disney's $12 billion theme park division swap their jobs. Mr. Iger also isn't shy about playing hardball to guard Disney's wallet. It was his call last month to yank ABC's broadcast of the Academy Awards off of Cablevision to win retransmission payments. Mr. Iger said in an interview last week that he didn't feel a need to unload ABC, as some have suggested, but he was less definitive when a shareholder asked at Disney's annual meeting last month. ''There are no guarantees in terms of what will remain part of our company and what will not,'' he answered. As he continues juggling the dizzying number of corporate and financial balls that Disney has in the air at any given moment, Mr. Iger has won over a dedicated group of cheerleaders. ''He's not constantly trying to show you how smart he is, and that is a very important trait in Hollywood, where you've got to rely on talent who consider themselves the center of the universe,'' says Warren E. Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman, who has known Mr. Iger since helping to finance the Capital Cities takeover of ABC in the mid-1980s. ''Bob is the type of guy you want to help,'' Mr. Buffett adds. ''When he calls I don't spend time thinking, 'How do I tell this guy no?' It's, 'How do I tell this guy yes?' And I don't feel that way about many people.'' Even Wall Street, that never-satisfied beast, seems newly pleased at Disney's direction. Net income for Disney's fiscal 2009 fell 25 percent, to $3.3 billion, as a result of the recession and problems at the movie studio. But after several notable upgrades from analysts and a nascent recovery at the studio -- ''Alice in Wonderland'' has earned about $675 million at the global box office -- Disney's stock price has perked up in recent weeks. It now trades at $36.22, an 81 percent increase from a year earlier. ''Bob has done the opposite of muddling through,'' says Mr. Eisner. ''He has managed the company aggressively and been steady in a very stormy time.'' But Mr. Eisner does have some advice: As Mr. Iger continues to mature, he must never ''allow arrogance to overpower him like it does many C.E.O.'s.'' Words of wisdom, but easier said than done. MR. IGER, of course, hasn't had a perfect reign, and Disney faces some particularly tough challenges ahead. Some senior executives at the company contend that their precise and deliberate chief waited far too long to put changes into effect at the movie studio, which had hewed to old-fashioned marketing strategies and suffered a string of flops like ''Surrogates'' and ''Confessions of a Shopaholic.'' Disney has big video-game ambitions, spending at least $180 million developing the segment last year alone. But Mr. Iger has at times appeared indecisive about the company's approach. The consumer products division argued that it should run video games; the Internet division, already managing online role-playing worlds like Club Penguin (which Mr. Iger bought for about $700 million in 2007), felt that gaming was its turf. First, Mr. Iger ruled in favor of consumer products. Then he reversed his decision, ultimately moving video games to the Internet group. The Internet group, meanwhile, is emerging as a trouble spot, analysts say. Competitors crow that some recent efforts -- like a ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' online world -- have been failures. So when it comes to online innovation, is Disney really moving fast enough? Mr. Jobs sidesteps that question. ''Bob is the most aggressive in his industry,'' he says. ''Consumer behavior is changing, and Bob gets that more than anybody else.'' But is Disney moving fast enough on the Web? ''That's not my place to say,'' Mr. Jobs demurs. The Marvel acquisition has posed its own challenges. Betting that the brooding Marvel characters would deepen its hold on boys -- long an area of weakness for Disney -- Mr. Iger paid about $50 a share for the company, a 29 percent premium. Some analysts were notably cool to the news. ''Over the long run, we suspect this will be viewed as Mr. Iger's first major mistake as C.E.O.,'' wrote a Citigroup analyst, Jason Bazinet, at the time of the acquisition. Since then, there has been friction between Isaac Perlmutter, the Marvel chief executive who is staying on, and Disney's consumer products division over how best to integrate two very different approaches. Hollywood, familiar with Mr. Perlmutter's penchant for ruling his roost, has started to whisper: Will he turn into Mr. Iger's version of Harvey Weinstein, the hard-charging Miramax co-founder who caused Mr. Eisner so many headaches after Disney acquired the little studio? Mr. Perlmutter declined to be interviewed. Disney is a huge company, with more than 140,000 employees spread over businesses as disparate as ESPN and time-share condos. All of this brings the company $36 billion in annual revenue and a market capitalization of about $70 billion. So new headaches are a daily event. Mr. Iger constantly has to contend with the big-picture questions, like how people will consume media in the future and how a mature, enormous company grows. But it's the middle-tier stuff that can become time-consuming. ABC, for instance, has fallen to fourth place among the Big Four broadcast networks (third place, in front of NBC, if you exclude sports). Disney's animation studio is still struggling despite improvements made by the Pixar brain trust. And its Winnie the Pooh character, which delivers $5 billion annually in retail sales, is showing some wear and tear, and efforts to return the character to prominence, notably a Disney Channel show, have failed. Disney and Mr. Iger dispute much of this criticism, particularly when it comes to Marvel. ''Ike's been great,'' Mr. Iger says of Mr. Perlmutter. ''The integration has gone well, and the potential has exceeded my expectations.'' In terms of video games, Mr. Iger said he had concluded that gaming of all kinds should be managed in a cohesive way by the Internet group, adding that the company's approach to the business continues to evolve. But he also says there is another crucial issue on his fix-it list. ''We get credit for being innovative, at least in our space, but I think we can be even better,'' he says over breakfast at the Lanesborough hotel in London. He complains that in-house lawyers can at times be overly aggressive, that instead of simply advising business units, they are too often making decisions. ''The baggage of tradition,'' he says of Disney's culture, ''can slow you down.'' ''I'm not going to eliminate that,'' he added, ''but I'd like to reduce it significantly.'' MR. IGER started his media career in 1972 as the host of ''Campus Probe,'' an Ithaca College television show. He dreamed of becoming a news anchor but got a job as a weatherman instead. Realizing that he wasn't very good at it, he took a production job in 1974 at ABC, where he says his first boss informed him that he was ''unpromotable.'' He quickly found another job inside the network and sped up the ranks. In 1985, when he was vice president of sports programming, Capital Cities Communications bought ABC -- a takeover that ended up shaping his business philosophy. The new owners took a relaxed approach, preserving ABC's culture and approaching integration with respect and patience. The positive lessons from that experience -- and some from Disney's own eventual acquisition of Capital Cities-ABC -- helped Mr. Iger woo the Pixar camp, rebuilding a relationship damaged by repeated clashes between Mr. Eisner and the animation studio. Corporate courtship, it turns out, is one of Mr. Iger's specialties. He used the same skills to win over Mr. Perlmutter in striking the Marvel deal. (For a long time, Disney couldn't even get a meeting with Marvel.) In November, Mr. Iger secured the Chinese government's approval to build a Disney World-style theme park in Shanghai, realizing one of Disney's longtime goals. And, last year, Mr. Iger played a star role in luring Steven Spielberg to the Magic Kingdom. Mr. Spielberg's company, DreamWorks Studios, will release its films through Disney starting early next year. Mr. Iger, who is married to the television journalist Willow Bay, dislikes pomp and circumstance. Often waking at 4:30 a.m., he drives himself to work and coaches his son's basketball games on weekends. He has always exhibited a casual charm. When he graduated from high school in Oceanside, N.Y., he was voted both ''most enthusiastic'' and ''friendliest.'' Told that he had to pick one, he went with the first. (A more recent claim to fame: WowOWow.com, a site created and run by Whoopi Goldberg and 15 friends, chose him as one of the 10 sexiest businessmen over 50.) Stacey Snider, the chief executive of DreamWorks and a partner in it with Mr. Spielberg, says Mr. Iger's likability had little to do with her boutique studio's decision to align itself with Disney. Ms. Snider says that what really mattered was Mr. Iger's enthusiastic embrace of the changes washing across the film industry: pushing for shifts in how DVDs are released, recalibrating marketing spending from old media to new, building movies around brands and franchises. ''In a very competitive landscape, you need to be with the sharpest, most forward-thinking, most risk-taking people you can,'' says Ms. Snider. ''Bob's approach is, 'How do we make the 22nd-century version of a media company?' '' Quite a few people in Hollywood think that Mr. Iger's all-or-nothing approach at Walt Disney Studios may be too much too quickly. But Ms. Snider disagrees. ''This is a legacy business,'' she says with a sigh, ''and whenever someone challenges that legacy, you have pushback.'' DISNEY'S approach to changes in Europe is classic Bob Iger: watch, learn, wait, pounce. About a decade ago, when Mr. Iger directly oversaw international operations, he was charged with increasing per capita spending on Disney products, whether movies or bed sheets, in various countries in Latin America. He decided, essentially, to make the region autonomous. Decisions about how best to market Mickey to Argentina or what Disney Channel programs made sense in Brazil would no longer come only from headquarters in Burbank, Calif. The experiment was a huge success, but Mr. Iger worried that replicating the structure elsewhere -- namely, in a giant market like Europe -- would be too radical. Until last spring. Disney, preoccupied with emerging markets, had come to view Europe as a mature part of its business. But Mr. Iger, who has made international growth a priority, decided that adopting a more nimble operating structure in the region could unlock more value. He drastically reorganized European operations, using Latin America as a blueprint. Some senior executives in Burbank, digesting the news that they had just lost oversight of an enormous portion of their portfolio, were miffed. Mr. Iger acknowledges some internal unrest but says it has dissipated. ''I do think it's working,'' he says. ''I sense a big change in the speed of decision making and the strategic focus. ''Burbank has gone from support, interest and curiosity to dread, fear and 'oh my goodness' to now, I think, acceptance,'' he adds. In late February, Mr. Iger flew to London for a progress report. In one 90-minute meeting at Disney's sleek Hammersmith office tower in London, Mr. Iger -- in shirt sleeves, his hands folded behind his head -- listened intently. The presentations focused on Disney Channel plans in various European countries and how specific markets were weaving Facebook into their marketing strategies. Of the 35 managers at the meeting, about half had been given new titles and responsibilities within the last few months. Mr. Iger peppered his team with questions about Italy, a country that marked Disney's arrival in Europe in the 1930s with a children's magazine, Topolino, that featured Mickey Mouse. He wanted to know why the No. 1 program on Italy's Disney Channel wasn't a franchise like ''Hannah Montana'' but a program he had never heard about before -- ''Il Mondo di Patty,'' a telenovela-style program for children about an Argentine girl. Local programmers had decided to give this inexpensive show a shot -- and they hit pay dirt. Most children's shows are 30 minutes, run weekly and have single-episode storylines. Telenovelas are daily soap operas with evolving plots. Mr. Iger was intrigued by the format, and an animated conversation ensued about what other markets -- including the United States -- might be ripe for such a series. ''It's important that Disney's products are presented in ways that are culturally relevant,'' Mr. Iger says, happy that the Italian Disney Channel was experimenting with different genres. He asked an assistant to send a DVD of the series to his office. Next up was a report about a new ad-buying system, called Disney Media Plus, that was successful in Latin America and was moving to Europe. Essentially, the system allows advertisers to tailor their marketing to demographics -- say, teenage girls in France -- across multiple Disney businesses. ''It should work pretty well,'' says the person making the presentation. ''It should?'' Mr. Iger asks with grin. ''It will,'' the manager responds. THE next morning, Mr. Iger is relaxed -- or as relaxed as a perpetual motion machine ever is. And the three problems that engulfed him over the last few days had been solved. That Disneyland attraction, a high-tech water show set to music called World of Color (think the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas on steroids), was being reworked. He felt that the attraction over all was outstanding, but he worried that the music was all wrong. So he had written notes about each song on how to make the show more modern. ''Ninety-five percent of the decisions made at the company are made by other people,'' he says. ''But this is a big show, and I felt opportunities were being lost.'' The standoff with Odeon Cinemas, the theater chain threatening to boycott ''Alice in Wonderland,'' was over; Mr. Iger had paid a personal visit to Odeon's chief executive to explain Disney's position on the DVD release. Even Dancing Mickey had become a distant worry; the manufacturing difficulty had proved to be a false alarm. So Mr. Iger takes a rare morning off. He goes to a small museum housing Winston Churchill's bomb-proof, World War II bunker, and receives a private tour from Churchill's granddaughter. He touches the maps hanging on the walls and sits in Churchill's chair. This is a treat: Churchill is one of Mr. Iger's heroes. When Mr. Iger was 12, a family friend carved a wooden figurine of the prime minister for him, and it still sits prominently on his desk. ''Churchill balanced heritage and innovation,'' Mr. Iger says later, at the black-tie premiere of ''Alice in Wonderland.'' ''There are big lessons in that for Disney. Our brand is so powerful because of our heritage. But you've got to innovate, and not just in terms of what is new today but what will be new far into the future.''

D'après Blue Sky Disney et The Hollywood Reporter, le conseil d'administration a renouvelé Bob Iger à son poste de PDG de la Walt Disney Company jusqu'en 2016. Il n'est pas prévu qu'il reste au-delà (il prendra sa retraite), et sa succession est donc déjà en cours de réflexion.

Les candidats potentiels au poste seraient bien entendu Jay Rasulo et Tom Staggs (actuellement CFO et Président de Parks & Resorts), mais d'ici là on peut avoir des surprises...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/walt-disney-extends-robert-igers-245603

Tout mais pas Rasulo. J'espère que le CA de TWDC sera plus malin que de faire ce choix catastrophique.

Ils essaient d'éviter l'erreur d'Eisner qui n'avait jamais voulu nommer de successeur. Pourquoi pas Anne Sweeney, qui a fait des merveilles sur Abc ?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/10/disney-renews-iger-deal-and-sets-succession-plan.html

C'est clair que Rasulo serait une vraie catastrophe!! Pourquoi pas Staggs, il se débrouille bien aux Parks & Resorts...

Cela pourrait être plus rapide que prévu ... il y a des rumeurs de grosses mésententes au sommet

http://www.disunplugged.com/2012/08/10/rumor-mill-big-spirited-change-edition/


En gros , rien ne vas plus entre Iger et Lasseter , et Lasseter aurait prévenu que si Iger ne partait pas très vite , c'est lui qui s'en irait ...

Un communiqué de presse daté d'hier informe que Robert A. Iger a été confirmé jusqu'au 30 juin 2016 à la tête de The Walt Disney Company, aussi bien en tant que Chairman qu'en tant que CEO. La presse économique et financière relate l'information ce matin :  


Walt Disney Co. (DIS) Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Iger will remain CEO until 2016, one year later than previously planned, pushing back a resolution to the long-standing question of who will succeed him atop the family-entertainment giant.

Mr. Iger had been set to step down as CEO in April 2015 and remain chairman until 2016. He will now retain both titles until the expiration of his contract in June of the latter year, the company said on Monday.

Mr. Iger, who has been CEO since 2005, is expected to be succeeded by one of Disney's current senior executives. Speculation has focused largely on Thomas Staggs, head of its theme parks unit, and Jay Rasulo, the chief financial officer.

Upon announcing in 2011 that Mr. Iger would add the chairman title, the company's board of directors said the planned 15-month period in which he would serve only in that role would "best position Mr. Iger to accomplish the transition with the new CEO."

Monday's announcement made that road map less clear, though it also gave Disney's board extra time to select a successor. Mr. Iger has never named a president or chief operating officer--the titles he held as the No. 2 to previous CEO Michael Eisner. There has been no indication whether he plans to put anyone into such a post before 2016.

Disney's board of directors decided to amend Mr. Iger's contract to extend his time as CEO following a meeting last Wednesday and Thursday.

"For nearly eight years as chief executive officer, Bob Iger has proven he has the unique ability to drive creative and financial success at the world's preeminent entertainment company," lead independent director Orin C. Smith said in a statement.

In his time as CEO, Mr. Iger has made his mark primarily through the multibillion-dollar acquisitions of Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment and "Star Wars" producer Lucasfilm. Total shareholder return--share-price changes plus reinvested dividends--has been 193% during his tenure compared with 54% for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, Disney said.

The terms of Mr. Iger's compensation in his extended time as CEO will be the same as already set for the prior fiscal year, the company said.

A number of key goals for Disney still remain on Mr. Iger's plate, including completing the integration of Lucasfilm following its acquisition last year; opening a long-planned theme park in Shanghai; and turning around a troubled interactive division.


Par ailleurs cette même presse cite une participation majoritaire de TWDC dans Disneyland Paris (51 %) et une participation minoritaire dans Hong Kong Disney Resort (48 %) et Shanghai Disney Resort (43 %).

The Walt Disney Company a déboursé pour sa division Parks & Resorts près de 3 milliards de dollars au cours de l'année 2012 : 2,9 milliards de dollars dont 641 millions pour ses parcs et resorts internationaux soit une augmentation de 50 % au niveau des dépenses internationales par rapport à l'année 2011.

J'avoue que ce départ ne me dérange pas tant que ça malgré les nombreux point positifs que je peut lui accorder ( Acquisitions de Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, droit d'oswald...) je regrète ses choix de séparation de Miramax, Mighty Ducks, Anaheim angels ....
Brefs pour moi il aura été un bon président mais pas du tout exceptionnel .
Oncle Walt me manque toujours autant et je rève de voir un jour un digne successeur qui saura redorer le blason Disney
Goodbye Bob restaure the magic.
Save Disney. com   

Thierry, comment peux-tu comparer les acquisitions de Pixar, Lucasfilm et Marvel (sans oublier Tapulous et Playdom) à la revente des Mighty Ducks et des Angels d'Anaheim ?
Et puis, je préfère largement la récupération d'Oswald, un personnage historique créé par Walt à une équipe de sport acquise dans les années '90.
La seule chose pour laquelle je suis d'accord est la revente de Miramax Films mais en achetant Marvel et Lucasfilm, en renommant Buena Vista en Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Iger a repositionné Disney en tant que grande marque de contenus familiaux où Miramax n'avait plus tellement sa place.
Même l'accord avec DreamWorks va dans ce sens avec des films Touchstone, certes, toujours plus adulte que ceux des autres labels (La Couleur des Sentiments (The Help) aurait pu être un Miramax) mais avec beaucoup de grands blockbusters, notamment ceux de Steven Spielberg.
Et regarde l'évolution de Disney Channel ! Personne ne parlait de cette chaîne, maintenant c'est devenu LA chaîne des jeunes avec des téléfilms au succès colossal (High School Musical : Premiers Pas sur Scène) et des têtes d'affiches qui percent ensuite dans la chanson. Des carrières éphémères mais qui marquent les esprits alors que je mets au défi quiconque en dehors des fans purs et durs de me citer un Disney Channel Original Movie d'avant 2006.

Avec ces acquisitions incroyables et inespérées, Bob Iger a clairement redynamisé The Walt Disney Company de la même manière que l'avait fait Michael Eisner dans les années '80/'90. Pour moi, il aura marqué The Walt Disney Company et restera dans l'Histoire.

Aujourd'hui, Disney est la plus intéressante major d'Hollywood, parmi les 6 existantes. La seule qui soit encore indépendante, celle qui attire les grands noms du blockbuster pour tous les publics. Depuis l'arrivée d'Iger, on a eu Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton, Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams, George Lucas.
Elle est numéro 1 au box office et marche sur les plates-bandes de Warner en lui piquant Alan Horn et en gagnant chaque duel de super-héros (Marvel vs DC Comics).
Avant l'arrivée d'Iger, Disney était vu comme un guignol en matière de cinéma avec des films d'animation qui ne fonctionnait pas en dehors de Pixar qui n'attendait que la fin de son contrat, et des films live lorgnant vers la comédie ridicule et non les grandes histoires épiques. Maintenant, on sent que Hollywood montre un certain respect vis-à-vis de Disney, l'achat de Marvel et de Lucasfilm a scié tout le monde, Disney est vu comme un géant du divertissement. Je rappelle aussi que le mot "Disney" est la cinquième marque la plus citée dans les réseaux sociaux en 2012 juste derrière Google, Facebook, Twitter et Apple qui sont toutes des marques du domaine de l'Internet et de l'informatique.

On pourra dire ce qu'on voudra, Bob Iger pourra partir la tête haute et n'aura pas à rougir de son bilan. Michael Eisner avait certes fait autant voire encore plus de choses pour Disney mais ses dernières années ont considérablement terni son bilan. Bob Iger partira en beauté après l'ouverture de Shanghai Disney Resort et la sortie de Star Wars - Épisode VII.

Iger a clairement redonné ses lettres de noblesse à la Walt Disney Company, après un Eisner sur le déclin. Mais plus important, en prenant en compte que son départ est acté, qui pour le remplacer ? Lasseter (le plus légitime ?) ? Philippe Bourguignon (Why not ?) ? Staggs (Why not ? Il pourrait racheter par la même occasion DLP) ...

Moi je miserais bien sur Kathleen Kennedy.

Ce qui pourrait entraîner une collaboration plus étroite entre la Walt Disney Company et Spielberg, de même, elle pourrait par la même occasion laisser entrevoir un possible rachat de DreamWorks SKG. ainsi que Amblim par Disney ! Prometteur ...

Dash a écrit:

Thierry, comment peux-tu comparer les acquisitions de Pixar, Lucasfilm et Marvel (sans oublier Tapulous et Playdom) à la revente des Mighty Ducks et des Angels d'Anaheim ?

je te rassure je ne compare pas je disais simplement que malgré l'acquisition des ces filiales excellentes je regrettais la revente des autres .

Maintenant , et à mes yeux seulement , j'avoue que je ne dénigre pas les  acquisitions qu'il a effectué et je l'en remercie pour cela je regrette juste les choix qu'il a fait concernant les équipes sportives et miramax .

On ne peut dire qu'elles ne rapportais pas, on ne peut pas dire non plus que Disney avais besoin de liquidité pour racheter les autres filiales .
je te rejoint également sur le bilan positif d'Iger ( Hormis pour Disney channel malgré les succès que tu as cité , peu, voir aucune place n'a été accordé aux vieux Disney qui sont restés dans les cartons comme "la rose et l'épée, la gnome mobile  mélodie du sud ..etc) il aurais , au moins pu laisser une tranche horaire en fin de soirée comme ce fut le cas au debut de Disney channel France, pour la diffusion de ce genre de films au lieu de nous re claquer des redif en programme nocturne).
je ne lui jette pas la pierre loin de là ; juste que j'espère avoir un jour la cerise sur le gateau que j'espère tant ( le meilleur pour tous fans comme moins fans)
Maintenant reste à voir qui lui succèdera en esperant qu'il sera meilleur qu'Iger ,malgrès ses prouesses qui , je le répète m'ont ravis .
comme le dis le dicton : il y a mieux il y a pire alors j'espère qu'on évitera le pire pour obtenir le meilleur ( make a wish)

A-Lex a écrit:

Ce qui pourrait entraîner une collaboration plus étroite entre la Walt Disney Company et Spielberg, de même, elle pourrait par la même occasion laisser entrevoir un possible rachat de DreamWorks SKG. ainsi que Amblim par Disney ! Prometteur ...

comme le dirais les extra terrestres de Toy story vis à vis de celui qui rachèterais Dreamworks " on vous dois une reconnaissance éternelle "  

Je ne suis pas si sûr que Dreamworks SKG se laissera racheter par Disney... Quand on voit que le studio a tenu à recouvrer son indépendance concernant la distribution de ses prochains titres à l'international, suite aux résultats décevants de La Couleur des Sentiments, Real Steel ou Cheval de Guerre... Surtout, il faut se rappeler que Dreamworks SKG a toujours eu pour vocation d'être indépendant.
Et je pense que Kathleen Kennedy sera sûrement trop occupée par Lucasfilms pour gérer également le dossier Dreamworks.

nicostitch a écrit:

suite aux résultats décevants de La Couleur des Sentiments

Résultats décevants ?! Le film a rapporté plus de 210.000 millions à l'international pour un pauvre budget de 25 ! Sachant qu'un film est considéré comme rentable une fois qu'il a remboursé trois fois son budget, c'est un énorme carton pour DreamWorks !

Et puis côté indépendance, DreamWorks SKG, n'est pas un exemple (Reliance Entertainment ...).

nicostitch a écrit:

Je ne suis pas si sûr que Dreamworks SKG se laissera racheter par Disney... Quand on voit que le studio a tenu à recouvrer son indépendance concernant la distribution de ses prochains titres à l'international, suite aux résultats décevants de La Couleur des Sentiments, Real Steel ou Cheval de Guerre... Surtout, il faut se rappeler que Dreamworks SKG a toujours eu pour vocation d'être indépendant.

Certes mais Lucasfilm aussi. George Lucas n'aimait pas du tout Hollywood et tenait à garder Lucasfilm indépendant. Pourtant il a revendu à Disney mais c'est aussi parce qu'il sait comment Disney fonctionne avec ses acquisitions. Il sait aussi que le studio est indépendant et qu'il n'y a pas une maison-mère qui n'y connait rien en cinéma qui viendra leur imposer des décisions. Sans compter que Lucas aime Disney. Et Spielberg aussi, donc je pense qu'on pourrait y venir tôt ou tard. D'autant plus que DreamWorks est toujours plus ou moins sur la sellette à chaque sortie de film financièrement parlant, ça les soulagerait beaucoup d'intégrer un grand groupe car ils pourraient se permettre plus facilement quelques échecs et ne se soucier que de la qualité de leurs films et plus du marketing et compagnie. C'était un des arguments de Lasseter au rachat de Pixar, il ne voulait pas avoir à embaucher des avocats, se lancer dans le merchandising, etc., il voulait juste faire des films et confier tout le reste à Disney.

En gros Disney produirait 99.9999% des films d'animation au cinéma quoi x) !

Quand je dis que Dreamworks a "pour vocation" d'être indépendant, ça ne veut pas dire qu'il le soit réellement.
Mais en lisant le livre de Daniel Kimmel, on voit que Dreamworks a toujours voulu s'assurer une image de maverick, qui impose sa règle aux studios qui le distribuent. Quitte à commettre des erreurs, par orgueil... Et malgré son passage du giron de Universal (studio de coeur de Spielberg) à Paramount, puis à Disney, le studio est resté une marque à part entière.
On pouvait penser que l'intégration à Disney brouillerait l'identité de Dreamworks, et créerait une sorte de confusion dans l'esprit du public, mais somme toute, c'est Spielberg qui a continué de dicter sa loi, puisqu'il a réussi à "phagocyter" l'entité Touchstone, et à obtenir que les seuls films distribués via ce label soient les siens... Ce pauvre Bruckheimer doit être dépité d'avoir été "éjecté" de Touchstone dont il a fait les heures de gloire avec ses thrillers et films d'action, et de devoir se cantonner à produire des films familiaux chez Disney (d'ailleurs, je n'ai jamais compris que Disney ne lui ait pas proposé de diffuser ses productions via Hollywood Pictures)

Je maintiens que La Couleur des Sentiments a été une déception à l'international. 210 millions, ce sont les recettes mondiales - mais si on déduit les 170 millions du box office USA, il ne reste plus que 40 millions pour l'international, ce qui en fait l'un des ratios les plus faibles de ces dernières années (80% pour les USA / 20% pour l'international), un ratio tel qu'on en voit en général pour les films sportifs ou les comédies très "américaines" (avec des comiques inconnus chez nous)

Par contre, là où l'on pourrait me contester, c'est pour Real Steel qui a fait de bons chiffres à l'international (210 millions de dollars), mais à l'époque de la sortie, cela avait été envisagé comme une déception, car le film avait coûté plus de 110 millions à produire + les frais de promotion, et avec le score plutôt frêle aux USA (80 millions), le film n'est rentré dans son budget qu'avec les sorties vidéo.

Pour ma part, je serais ravi que Dreamworks intègre le giron Disney définitivement, parce que ses productions sont de qualité et que Spielberg est l'un des plus grands réalisateurs au monde, mais le fait de scinder l'exploitation des futurs films entre différents distributeurs semble signifier un éloignement progressif et non une consolidation vis-à-vis de Disney... Du fait d'une distribution diluée à l'international, Miramax n'a jamais été réellement considéré comme une branche de Disney, alors qu'elle lui appartenait.

De surcroît, je me souviens que Disney/ABC devait s'occuper de Dreamworks Television, et cela n'a jamais été réellement le cas - d'ailleurs, la distanciation de Spielberg vis-à-vis de Disney TV est évidente dans le fait qu'il préfère produire ses séries via Amblin, et non via Dreamworks, pour mieux les proposer à Universal ou CBS... La seule fois où il a fait "confiance" à Disney pour l'une de ses séries, c'était The River qui a été arrêtée au bout de quelques épisodes...

J'espère donc me tromper en disant que je ne suis pas si sûr que Dreamworks SKG se laissera racheter par Disney (sur un autre topic, j'avais émis l'hypothèse que Disney puisse récupérer les droits de distribution des films de la phase I sortis via Paramount, et l'on m'avait assuré que non, mais je suis content d'avoir eu une bonne intuition sur ce coup-là... comme je serais content de me tromper sur le cas Dreamworks)

Ce qui pourrait favoriser l'intégration de Dreamworks au catalogue Disney, ce serait de nominer Stacy Snider... mais j'ignore si elle a toujours autant d'ascendant à Hollywood.

En tout cas, je suis heureux de pouvoir discuter de la question Dreamworks sur ce forum ! Merci !

Dans tous les cas, Iger quitte la WDC en 2016, on peut donc difficilement imaginer qu'avec tous les projets en cours, un rachat de DreamWorks sous son mandat sous possible.

La vraie question est de savoir quelle politique appliquera la prochaine personne à la tête de la compagnie, car si Iger s'est imposé comme un sauver en son temps en relançant la firme par de nombreux investissements lourds, que fera son successeur ? Restera t'il dans une politique de rachats ? Ou alors optera t'il à tout mettre en oeuvre pour pérenniser les rachats faits récemment sur le long terme ?

La question de DreamWorks peut-être envisageable, et apporterais un vrai plus pour les deux compagnies. Spielberg a toujours été un grand fan de Disney de là même à débaucher un certain Katzenberg pour gérer la partie animation des studios, d'ailleurs imaginons pourquoi pas d'ici quelques années Lasseter CEO de la WDC, et Katzenberg à la tête de l'animation de WDAS, Pixar et DreamWorks Animation, cas de figure certes peu probable je l'accorde.

Phephelive a écrit:

En gros Disney produirait 99.9999% des films d'animation au cinéma quoi x) !

Non, tu confonds DreamWorks Studios de Steven Spielberg (qui ne fait que des films à prises de vues réelles) avec DreamWorks Animation de Jeffrey Katzenberg (qui ne fait que des films d'animation).
DreamWorks Studios et DreamWorks Animation sont deux entreprises différentes qui n'ont plus rien à voir.
Quand on parle de DreamWorks ici, on ne parle pas de films d'animation.

DreamWorks Animation a été créée en tant que filiale de DreamWorks Studios à l'origine puis a acquis son indépendance et a fait distribuer ses films par Paramount puis aujourd'hui par 20th Century Fox. Alors que les films à prises de vues réelles de DreamWorks Studios sont distribués aujourd'hui par Disney.

Enfin, même si Disney rachetait DreamWorks Animation, il resterait toujours les productions Blue Sky Studios (20th Century Fox), Sony Pictures Animation (Columbia Pictures), Illumination Entertainment (Universal), Warner Bros., etc., qui leur échapperaient.

Dash a écrit:

Bob Iger partira en beauté après l'ouverture de Shanghai Disney Resort et la sortie de [i]Star Wars - Épisode VII[i].

Ne vendons pas la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué... Il est incontestable que pour le moment les productions Marvel sont plutôt une réussite mais concernant Star Wars, tout le monde est en attente et la communauté de fans la première. Comme tu l'as dis ce rachat de Lucasfilms par Disney a scié tout le monde, moi-même je n'aurais jamais pensé une telle chose possible, j'ai d'abord cru à un fake en voyant ça sur une page d'info du net ce fameux soir d'octobre 2012. Le tout est de savoir si Disney en tant que producteur, car forcément en tant que tel il a son mot à dire sur le choix de tel ou tel réalisateur et autre composante du film ou plutôt des films, on le voit d'ailleurs déjà sur de nombreux points, sera partie prenante à ce qui sera un succès ou non.

Le film pourra probablement être un succès commercial mais artistique là est la question or je ne sais pas si Disney se rend compte que ce volet sera ausculté sous toutes les coutures par tous les fans et spécialistes du genre et de la saga; concernant Abrams je pense qu'il en est conscient, il l'a d'ailleurs déjà déclaré mais les décisions qui auront été prises au final par Disney seront dénoncées si cet opus est un échec artistique, la compagnie aura sa part de responsabilité avec notamment LucasFilms et Abrams. Or est-ce que la Walt Disney Company, et à travers elle Bob Iger, est prête à assumer l'échec d'un volet d'une des plus mythiques sagas du cinéma?... Car à ce niveau là on n'attend pas du moyen ou du bon, c'est de l'excellent qui sera demandé et crois-moi que Disney est attendu au tournant...

Personnellement, même si financièrement Marvel, Pixar et Star Wars c'est génial, ça aurait vu le jour dans tous les cas avec un autre studio puisqu'ils sont dirigés indépendamment. j'ai pas le besoin de les voir associé à tout prix à Disney.

Par contre, ce qui me fait super mal, c'est de voir que Bob Iger et John Lasseter ont tué l'animation 2D. En faisant une princesse et la grenouille au rabais (en quelques mois, 0 budget, une dizaine d'animateurs seulement, un scénario fait à la va vite...), un Winnie l'Ourson payé par le département marketing à la place d'une nouvelle campagne de pub...