Disney Succession Battle Spills Into The Public Eye…I Hate Josh D’Amaro

     The Disney succession battles are beginning to spill into the public. Today, I was scrolling through the Wall Street Journal because I had taken a WSJ respite over the weekend. After clicking on the business section, I saw an article titled He Raised Disney Park Prices-and Fans Still Love Him. Now He’s on the CEO Shortlist. Both bemused and amused, I clicked and read the entire article.

     Josh D’Amaro is a man with two important qualities. First, he has a great last name. Second, he seems to really want to be Disney’s next CEO. Josh runs Disney’s entertainment division, and he has done a great job. Bob Chapek used to run the entertainment division, and when he replaced Bob Iger, D’Amaro got called up to the big leagues. He has transformed the entertainment division into a profit beast through some vicious price raises. Funny enough, Bob Chapek caught all the heat from fans mad over the price raises, while D’Amaro, the one actually imposing these price raises, escaped unharmed.

     D’Amaro has escaped better than unharmed. He has transformed into a celebrity for the most hardcore Disney fans (insane people). He has over 150,000 followers on Instagram and according to the WSJ, whenever he walks through the parks, “fans and employees mob him for handshakes and selfies.” More important than being well-liked, Disney’s parks make so much money. He has raised prices dramatically, created an app that allows fans to skip lines for $20 a day, and Lightning Lanes, an extremely expensive option that allows fans to ride the most popular rides continually. He also trimmed a frequently abused program that allowed fans with disabilities to get to the front faster, one the only moves he has caught direct flak for.

     Anyway, he launched a public salvo with this WSJ article. This article was one of the funniest things I have ever read. It was absolutely riddled with lines that he gave the Journal. For example, he gave a presentation earlier this year where they introduced new rides off the back of a $60 billion park investment. I can’t even do this justice, just read this quote from the story.

     The Disney faithful gasped and leapt to their feet in cheers as D’Amaro rolled out plans that included a new “Monsters, Inc.” roller coaster and new theme-park areas based on Disney villains and the “Avatar” movies.

     Asked by text message after the presentation how he felt it had gone, D’Amaro wrote back, “If the fans are happy, I’m happy.”

     That was SO funny to me. I have never read a cornier, PR-given, line before. Here are some more great quotes:

     “He’s become someone who has to be considered as a future CEO of Disney,” said Benioff, who counts both Iger and D’Amaro as friends.”

     “D’Amaro has told confidants in recent weeks that he’s interested in the CEO job and ready to take the reins if they’re offered.”

     And my personal favorite: “Privately, some of his supporters say they worry that if he’s passed over, he might be recruited to leave Disney and run a different company.”

     What did Joshy think he would accomplish with this? This article and the fact he 100% headed this up to put public pressure on Iger and his primary rival, Dana Walden, makes me think he is an idiot. I am probably unreasonably mad that he is pulling this crap, but it is just so naïve, pointless, and it portrays internal turmoil, something I do not want at a company I own.

     I have already said quite a few times that I am selling as soon as Iger leaves, but I will sell the second this guy gets announced as CEO. Not just because of this public stuff, which irks me for some reason, but because his accomplishments are wildly overblown. Oh, congrats man, you made more money by raising prices during a time when people are richer than ever. That is really cool that you objectively lowered the quality of the parks while increasing overall prices, I am sure that will not come back to bite the company.

     Dana Walden, who runs the entertainment division, which includes streaming and linear, runs the second most successful streaming company in the world and has consistently grown revenues and subscribers.

     I probably would not sell everything if Walden is put in, but I am so unbelievably out on Josh, and I will personally drive down to Florida and RKO him if he does anything like this again