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

February 9, 2023
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.