Posted Aug 23rd 2006 6:06PM by TMZ Staff
Times are apparently tough for former Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. My spies tell me he took a plane to New York City Wednesday afternoon, but it's not a private jet. It's not first class on United or American. It's the very egalitarian Jet Blue.
Eisner and his wife showed up at Burbank Airport and bided their time in the terminal with iced coffees, which Eisner fetched himself. They boarded with all the common folk and settled in toward the middle of the plane. Eisner is currently (as of 3:00 PT Wednesday) in Seat 12F and is wearing a white ESPN hat. His wife rolled her own -- carry on suitcase, that is.
Eisner resigned from Disney last September. His net worth is estimated as more than half a billion dollars. Shave off $473 (round trip Burbank/New York) from that.
Filed under: Wacky & Weird
Tags: Michael Eisner, MichaelEisner
Posted Jun 29th 2006 9:29AM by TMZ Staff
The Walt Disney Co. got a new chairman yesterday in John Pepper, the former chairman and CEO of one of the world's largest packaged goods companies, Procter & Gamble.
And as the Wall Street Journal aptly points out, "...Mr. Pepper has little media or technology experience..." -- but that's not the part that should really concern Wall Street or Disney shareholders. (After all, P&G is a media company in its own way, as one of the world's largest advertisers in broadcast and print.)
No, what should be of concern is what can happen when a CEO runs roughshod over a corporate board, as Disney CEO Michael Eisner did for almost 20 years. We'll leave aside 20/20 hindsight criticisms, like the fact that Disney passed on "Lord of the Rings," "The Sopranos" and "Survivor," and that Eisner hated "Lost" so much he wanted it cancelled almost immediately.
What ought to concern investors is that, thanks in no small part to Disney's rubber-stamp board, Eisner's whimsical, almost schizophrenic, mien towards former employees cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars: An opportunity to settle with Jeffrey Katzenberg for $90 million was crushed by Eisner; Disney ended up paying $280 million.
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Filed under: The Biz, City Of Industry
Tags: michael eisner, MichaelEisner
