Iger repelled a coup, but the Disney castle remains under siege
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Bog Iger's on a hot streak.
A week after settling a "win-win" situation with the state of Florida, Iger prevailed in a bruising proxy fight. This marks two significant victories and extinguishes major distractions that have needled Disney over the past year.
But now that he's cleared a path and quieted outside critics badgering the company, he's still left with all the problems at home.
The legacy media giant straddles two worlds. An older, lucrative system of cable television is dwindling as more customers say goodbye to traditional bundles. But the newer streaming model is hardly a savior. And it isn't yet profitable.
An iconic brand in the sports entertainment world, ESPN's future is also up in the air. Executives are pursuing a direct-to-consumer offering and a joint venture gambit to reconfigure how fans watch sports and win back the higher fees closer to cable subscriptions.
How the $60 billion investment in theme parks and resorts will pan out is another challenge for Disney.
As is reclaiming box office dominance.
Disney's moment of uncertainty extends to Iger himself, and to the CEO role. Even if he can right the ship, who will succeed him? And how will the board avoid another ill-fated choice after Bob Chapek's brief and troubled turn?
As Iger campaigned to fend off the activist challenge, he said shareholders expressed the importance of Disney setting a succession plan. And as Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal reports, selecting the next CEO is the board's top priority. Iger's contract is set to expire at the end of 2026.
Since tumbling to multiyear lows in October, Disney shares have climbed close to 50%. In that time Iger and his management team have advanced a series of ambitious initiatives to reenergize the company — including a movie studio shake-up and a partnership with Epic Games, the maker of “Fortnite.”
Iger rejects the argument that Peltz's activist campaign instigated recent changes that the market has celebrated. In an interview on CNBC Thursday, he said, if anything, the proxy fight was a distraction, diluting the time he had to spend on the turnaround plan.
"The market is reacting to how this company is performing, it was not reacting, really, to the activist fight," he said.
That may be true. But for now, the uncertainty over what directed Disney's performance — executive strategy or an insurgent threat— will disappear.
With no outside spoilers to blame, what's left is Iger's show-me story.
Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on Twitter @hshaban.