Bob Iger brings the magic back to Disney with great news for investors, bad news for employees

Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind — except the 7,000 employees we over-hired.

Bob Iger is back (for two years), and he’s bringing the magic, focus and layoffs with him.

Iger served the news to investors on a golden platter:

• Shareholder returns: Bringing back its dividend (but smaller than before) by the end of the year.
• Cutting costs: Laying off 7K employees (~3% of workforce).
• More focus: Reorganizing its biz into three divisions (streaming + media, ESPN and parks).

He also gave creative teams more decision-making power and squashed rumors of selling or spinning off ESPN into its own company.

Truly magic: Since Bob Iger’s return last November, $DIS is up nearly 20% — beating the S&P 500’s 5%.

Disney also reported earnings that beat on both sales and earnings.

• The good: Theme park sales exceeded expectations by 7% and the unit’s operating profit margins recovered.
• The bad: Disney+ lost 2.4M subscribers, ~1M more than analyst expectations.

The magic of diversification.