Word: eisner
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
WHOM YOU'LL SEE About 300 of Wall Street's and Hollywood's most powerful and famous (and about 100 of their glittery offspring). This year: Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Andy Grove, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Diane Sawyer (a longtime friend of Allen's), John Malone, Geraldine Laybourne, Diane von Furstenberg and Jerry Levin...
When a helicopter carrying Frank Wells, president of the Walt Disney Co., crashed in Nevada on Easter Sunday, 1994, Hollywood whispered that the tragedy had taken Disney's heart with it. It also left the now 56-year-old Michael Eisner, the company's brilliant chief executive, lacking a confidant and a suitable successor. In the past four years, Eisner has entertained a number of pretenders to the throne, notably Michael Ovitz and Jeffrey Katzenberg, only to ultimately discard them--painfully and publicly...
...Burke, president of Disney subsidiary ABC Broadcasting, was the latest in a string of departures in recent months, including those of top strategist Lawrence Murphy, chief financial officer Richard Nanula and TV whiz Geraldine Laybourne. The losses of Burke and Laybourne were particularly surprising. Burke was considered a favored Eisner protege, and Laybourne, who before joining Disney turned Nickelodeon into one of the hottest channels on cable, looked like the perfect choice for developing the company's numerous disparate television properties. So Hollywood is still whispering: Is there trouble in Mouseland...
...revenues. But some analysts are worried that its fabled pre-eminence in the animation arena has eroded since its Lion King days and that its theme parks face newly ferocious rivals and, perhaps as a result, deliver lower profit margins than they once did. ABC, snapped up by Eisner back in 1995, has suffered its own turmoil and a ratings free fall (this past season brought the network the indignity of finishing behind Fox in the 18-to-49 demographic). The launch of Disney's cruise line has been delayed by shipyard snafus...
...does all this equal a company in trouble? Burke, who left after 12 productive years at the company (he is credited with turning around the troubled Euro Disney park in France), offers up some heartfelt pro-Eisner spin. "This whole situation is a lot less sexy and nefarious than people believe," he says. "Eisner is the most interesting combination of entertainment and business talent in the entertainment business--maybe in any business--and the company still has one of the greatest collections of business talent that I've ever seen." In fact, the defections can be seen as backhanded praise...