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October 31, 2005
Disney "Pirates" Ship Takes to the Seas
The titular ship Johnny Depp helmed in 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl will be setting sail as the U.S. entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, a 31,250-mile, nine-leg sea race around the globe. Disney has plunked down an estimated $15 million-$18 million in loot for the right to turn the 70-foot yacht into a floating billboard for the two upcoming Pirates sequels, which will reunite Depp with costars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. The vessel, emblazoned with a skull and crossed scabbards logo, sets sail Nov. 12 in Vigo, Spain. The eight-month race is due to finish in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 17, three weeks before the first seafaring follow-up, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, hits theaters on July 7--an occasion marked by the boat's number: 7706. The third film in the Pirates trifecta will arrive in summer 2007.
When Walt Disney Co. (DIS) Chief Executive Robert Iger (search) forged a deal to put his company's content on Apple Computer's iPods, it said a lot about how the Mouse's new boss will run the show. Last week's deal accented Iger's call for media companies to acknowledge ever-changing delivery systems for content. Iger has, in the past, suggested release windows be squeezed on theatrical films so that home videos can get out earlier. At the same time, it also highlighted the olive branch the Disney chief is extending to Apple (AAPL) chief Steve Jobs (search). Jobs also is chairman and chief executive of Pixar (PIXR) , the animated film distribution partner with which Disney has had strained relations in the past, and seeks to renew that partnership. "Strategically, I think they're doing all the right things," said Mike Florin, media analyst for TIAA-CREF, which has 15.5 million Disney shares. "It seems like he's going to push for changes." The early returns on Iger are positive but it is unclear whether Disney's new chief is making real inroads, or that he's simply a breath of fresh air.
At the Walt Disney Studios, a fresh breeze -- one composed strictly of zeros and ones -- is wafting through the central corridors of the old Disney animation building on Dopey Drive, which are lined with blowups of cels from such Disney classics as "Pinocchio," "101 Dalmatians" and "The Little Mermaid." Disney's architects designed the animation building so that all the rooms had windows open to sunlight. Tunnels from the basement allowed animators to carry precious cels to other buildings without facing the elements. Today, Walt Disney's corner office on the third floor sits empty, the studios' executives having all decamped to the grander Team Disney building designed by Michael Graves. But ever since his death in 1966, Disney's presence has hung over the studio as both an inspiration and a curse. Longtime execs would ask, "But what would Walt do?" a refrain that was often as inhibiting as it was challenging.
For years, one of the worst kept secrets in business was the extraordinary lengths that CEOs had to go to in order to be terminated "for cause," and thus forfeit their stunning severance payouts. Screwing up royally wasn't enough. Sometimes neither was being charged with a felony. Now it appears that at least one oft-maligned corporate board has found the backbone to expand, rather than limit, the definition of for-cause termination.
A television distribution deal between Apple Computer Inc. and Walt Disney Co. that brought together CEOs Steve Jobs and Bob Iger on Wednesday stoked expectations that a separate agreement between Disney and Jobs's Pixar Animation Studios Inc. is at hand. Pixar (PIXR.O: Quote, Profile, Research) shares rose as much as 3.7 percent, rebounding from a sell-off in the media sector, after Iger and Jobs appeared on stage together to announce that Disney (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) unit ABC would sell TV programs through Apple's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iTunes Web site for viewing on computers and its new video iPod device.
Michael Eisner, who stepped down last week as chief executive of The Walt Disney Co., has resigned his seat on the company's board of directors, Disney said Thursday. Eisner and the company have severed all ties in a surprise move that means he will not serve as a consultant as he had been entitled to do under his employment agreement. Eisner "no longer provides any services" for Disney, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Eisner resigned from the board on Sept. 30, his last day as CEO, according to the filing. Disney's former president and chief operating officer, Robert Iger, succeeded Eisner the next day. Eisner, who led the media and theme park company for 21 years, had been expected to remain on the board until next spring when Disney elected a new board.
Two decades after Michael Eisner rescued a troubled Magic Kingdom, its new CEO must reshape it for a vastly different world. As Robert Iger begins his first business day as Walt Disney (DIS) CEO today, it represents the end of an era — and not just for Disney. The world that former chief Michael Eisner knew during his 21-year reign is undergoing a dramatic transformation. New technologies, including cable and satellite TV, fragment audiences among a vast array of news and entertainment options. Disney's core audience, kids, often become jaded before they leave kindergarten. And for theme park tourists, the threat of terrorism is a fact of life. "Twenty years ago, all Disney needed was a creative revival," says James Stewart, author of DisneyWar. "It was still a pretty simple world. Entertainment was dominated by a few TV networks and a few movie studios."
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