Ejecting Ike Perlmutter “Was A Necessary Step,” Disney CEO Bob Iger Tells Time Magazine
13.04.2023 - 23:25
/ deadline.com
Isaac Perlmutter’s time at Disney had run its course and the former Marvel Entertainment chairman’s removal “was a necessary step in the direction of us creating a more efficient company,” CEO Bob Iger said. He said the decision was not due to Perlmutter’s support of activist investor Nelson Peltz.
“I’d rather not get into details about this one…There was redundancy specific to the way Marvel was being managed,” Iger said in the cover interview with Time for its 100 Most Influential People edition.
Perlmutter was let go March 29 as Disney began cutting 7,000 jobs in a massive staff overhaul and $5.5 billion cost-cutting push. Marvel Entertainment – which is separate from the Kevin Feige-run Marvel Studios business — will be folded into other parts of the Disney corporate umbrella. Perlmutter’s oversight included comic book publishing, game licensing and arena shows.
Perlmutter spoke out a week ago, saying he’d been fired for insisting on fiscal discipline and supporting Peltz, who waged a very public proxy fight with Disney for months but withdrew himself as a board candidate before the annual meeting after Disney announced the streamlining measures.
Iger told Time the decision to remove Perlmutter “would have been made regardless of that.”
He also addressed Hulu, Florida and succession.
Comcast has “the right to put their piece [of Hulu] to us, in other words, force us to buy them out. If they decide to do that, then we have no choice but to buy them out.” The put-call deadline for the joint owners of the streaming service is early next year.
He reiterated Disney’s value to the state of Florida, turning swampland “into a business that employs over 75,000 people, that is visited by tens of millions of people every