Ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek says in new book ‘sniper’ – Business News
Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek is accusing Bob Iger of sabotaging his temporary run atop the House of Mouse — portraying his onetime mentor as a “sniper”.
Chapek writes in his forthcoming memoir that Iger had “an intentional and preconceived role in abruptly ending my ride as Disney CEO” — Iger handpicked Chapek to succeed him as prime exec however got here back to the job after Chapek acquired axed much less than three years into the gig.
“I didn’t get a chance to finish what I started,” Chapek writes in “Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth,” which is scheduled for release subsequent Tuesday.
Bob Chapek, left, then-Walt Disney Company CEO, and Bob Iger, who was government chairman of Walt Disney Company, communicate at Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 30, 2021. Getty Images
“In truth, it pisses me off.”
The notion that Iger labored behind the scenes to undermine his successor is hardly new.
Iger continued to wield extraordinary affect even after he stepped down as CEO and acted as a sounding board for Disney executives sad with Chapek, the Wall Street Journal reported in a post-mortem on Chapek’s 2022 ouster.
Now Chapek himself is placing the accusation on the report — and doing so in stark phrases.
“I believe the real reason I got fired lay with Iger,” Chapek writes in an excerpt from the book.
He alleged that Iger — who again retired as Disney CEO earlier this 12 months, paving the best way for Josh D’Amaro to succeed him — started maneuvering to reclaim the highest job virtually instantly after stepping apart in 2020.
Bob Iger, who returned as Disney CEO after Bob Chapek was ousted in 2022, is accused by his successor of waging a marketing campaign to undermine him. Getty Images for Disney
He additionally recounts being blindsided by an April 2020 New York Times report that portrayed Iger as successfully returning to run Disney because the COVID pandemic ravaged the company.
Chapek additional alleges that Iger wielded his deep relationships with Disney administrators, Hollywood producers and different energy brokers to undercut his successor.
In one other hanging revelation, Chapek claims it was Iger who took the lead on Disney’s response to Scarlett Johansson’s explosive 2021 lawsuit over the streaming release of “Black Widow.”
Chapek says Bob Iger performed an “intentional and preconceived role” in ending his tenure atop Disney. Getty Images
Chapek writes that Iger authorized the company’s blistering assertion attacking Johansson’s go well with — just for Chapek to soak up a lot of the ensuing backlash in Hollywood.
Chapek even raises the incendiary concept that Iger might have stepped down on Feb. 25, 2020 as a result of he anticipated the havoc COVID would wreak on Disney.
Within weeks, the pandemic slammed Disney’s theme parks, film theaters and different companies.
Chapek writes that a number of high-ranking figures in authorities and business later advised him they believed Iger knew worldwide disruption was coming, whereas Chapek got here to wonder if he had been put in as a “sacrificial lamb” who would shoulder layoffs and different painful selections whereas Iger preserved his legacy.
Chapek doesn’t declare to have proof that was Iger’s motive.
His account is particularly pointed as a result of Disney’s board publicly backed him simply months earlier than firing him.
In June 2022, administrators unanimously prolonged Chapek’s contract for an additional three years, praising his “strong leadership during the pandemic, business results, and transformation strategy.” He led Disney because it turned embroiled in a feud over Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law with Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Bob Chapek’s new memoir, “Behind the Castle Walls,” particulars his rise at Disney and his bitter fallout with Bob Iger. Bob Chapek
Less than 5 months later, Disney’s streaming operation was hemorrhaging money and traders punished the company after a disappointing earnings report.
Disney shares plunged 13% on Nov. 9, 2022, their worst one-day decline since 2001.
The board moved days later to convey back Iger.
Scarlett Johansson’s 2021 lawsuit over the streaming release of “Black Widow” turned a main flashpoint during the ability battle between Chapek and Iger. AP
Disney’s public announcement stated Chapek “stepped down,” however an SEC submitting was more specific: The company stated it “exercised its right to terminate without cause” his employment.
Chapek says he was not given the possibility to go away on his own phrases, writing that Disney “didn’t even give me the option of resigning.”
He additionally rejects the broader caricature of himself as an unimaginative operator who failed to know Disney’s artistic tradition.
Chapek repeatedly casts himself in the book as a disruptor — a machinist’s son from Indiana who was underestimated by Hollywood insiders however prepared to problem the company’s sacred cows.
“It was Bob from flyover Indiana, educated at a state school, who disrupted the business and kept the studio afloat with an endeavor others had dismissed as ‘creative heresy,’” he writes of his earlier push into direct-to-video animated sequels.
For now, Chapek says he’ll by no means go back to Disney World, leaving him “very sad.”
“It was a part of my life even before I joined the company. But I feel so let down, so disillusioned. Never say never, but I don’t think the effort to erase my time as CEO is very consistent with me wanting to go back on ‘It’s a Small World,’” he advised the Journal.
The Post has sought remark from Iger. Disney declined to remark.
