Disney rehires two former executives amid poor performance at the box office

2023-07-31 13:25:55 ET

Walt Disney Co ( NYSE: DIS ) has reportedly rehired Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer – its former executives who were once seen as potential successors to Bob Iger.

Staggs had quite a decorated tenure at Disney that spanned over 26 years during which he held a bunch of top roles at the entertainment conglomerate including its Head of Theme Parks and Chief Financial Officer.

Mayer, on the other hand, played a central role in designing the streaming strategy for the Walt Disney Co.

The two former executives have been brought back to advise on the company’s legacy TV business as well as to assess strategic options for ESPN , as per Puck – an American digital media platform that first reported the news of their return.

At writing, Disney shares are trading at the same price at which they started 2023.

Note that the report arrives shortly after Disney said Bob Iger will remain its Chief Executive for two more years.

Still, Iger recently dubbed finding a successor his top priority – and now that Staggs and Mayer are back – investors and analysts are left to question if they are again being considered as the next-in-line to lead the Walt Disney Co .

Meanwhile, the mass media giant is struggling with poor box office performance. On CNBC’s “ Squawk Box ”, Matt Belloni – the Founder Partner of Puck also said today:

Disney has a creative issue here because they’ve essentially been running the playbook of let’s replay the hits; let’s take our old movies and remake them in a modern fashion.

The post Disney rehires two former executives amid poor performance at the box office appeared first on Invezz .