Michael Eisner

“When I got to Disney, it was very clear there was a head-to-head conflict, and Michael undercut me every chance he could, and after a couple years, I just didn't want to deal with it anymore”

“And those three men, Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, would pull off probably the greatest media company comeback in history.”

“By the numbers, Michael's tenure was unbelievable. He comes in with a market cap a little shy of two billion, leaves with it worth, I don't know, fifty-ish billion. I think there was some dilution, so it wasn't quite a 25 X, closer to a twenty-X of the stock. …”

“Operating profit at the company goes from well under three hundred million when they take over in 1984 to just under two billion a decade later. So, you know, almost, what's that, eight X operating profit in a decade.”

“He proposes a deal to Eisner, and this is where the relationship becomes irreparable. Pixar should actually be getting a hundred percent of the profits, not 50%, and they're now prepared to fund the budget themselves, too. Disney would just get a 10% distribut…”

“Michael strikes a deal for the Walt Disney Company to acquire ABC Capital Cities for nineteen billion dollars, which was the second largest acquisition in history to that point.”

“Roy and Stanley gold, his business partner, who also resigns from the board would promptly turn around and launch a first of its kind public grassroots shareholder campaign with the website, savedisney.com. With the stated goal of mounting a proxy vote to oust…”

“Arguably the greatest two-person management team in media company history, Michael Eisner and Frank Wells.”

“At the end of the day, 43% of the shareholder base votes to withhold support for Eisner as CEO, which is a huge number.”

“Roy had made them promise not to fully kill animation, and then he had made them make him, Roy, chairman of the animation division, under Katzenberg, who's running all the studios.”

“All told, 27 of their first 33 movies that they make are profitable, which, in Hollywood, to have a hit rate like that, that's like making 33 venture capital investments and only losing money in six of them.”