Michael Eisner

Michael Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American business executive who served as chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. His 21-year tenure revived Disney's animation studio, greatly expanded its theme parks and media holdings, and ended amid shareholder pressure that brought Bob Iger to the top job in his place.

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Early life and early career

Michael Dammann Eisner was born on March 7, 1942, in Mount Kisco, New York. After university he worked in television at NBC, CBS and ABC, where he rose in programming under Barry Diller. When Diller moved to Paramount Pictures, Eisner followed, serving as president of the studio from 1976 to 1984, a period that produced a string of hit films and popular television series.

Arrival at Disney

Disney in 1984 was in a weak position, having fended off takeover attempts and seen its film output sag. Shareholder Sid Bass and Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney's nephew, brought in Eisner as chairman and chief executive, with former Warner Bros. executive Frank Wells as president — a pairing deliberately modelled on the Walt and Roy O. Disney partnership. Jeffrey Katzenberg was recruited to run the film studio.

Revival and the Disney Renaissance

The new team's early years combined cost discipline with creative risk. Touchstone Pictures gave Disney a successful adult-oriented live-action label, and the animation studio, long in decline, was rebuilt. Beginning with The Little Mermaid (1989) and continuing through Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994), Disney animation entered the period now called the Disney Renaissance. Eisner also broadened Disney's media portfolio, most notably leading the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC — bringing the ABC network and a majority stake in ESPN to Disney — in a deal announced in 1995 and completed in 1996, and later acquiring the Muppets franchise.

The Disney Decade and the parks

In the early 1990s Eisner announced a programme of expansion he called "The Disney Decade," promising new parks around the world, expansion of existing parks, and new films and media ventures. Not every proposal was built, but the parks growth was substantial. Disney-MGM Studios opened at Walt Disney World in 1989. Euro Disney — now Disneyland Paris — opened in 1992, vastly over budget and with low early attendance, a difficulty Eisner himself later acknowledged. Disney's Animal Kingdom followed in 1998, and Disney California Adventure, Tokyo DisneySea in 2001, Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris in 2002 and Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005 completed a run in which seven of the world's twelve Disney parks opened under Eisner.

Final years and departure

Eisner's last years were far more difficult. Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994, removing his closest partner. The troubled, brief presidency of Michael Ovitz, public disputes with Katzenberg and with Pixar's Steve Jobs, and a run of weaker animated films damaged his standing. In 2004 Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold led the "Save Disney" shareholder campaign, and at that year's annual meeting about 43 percent of shareholders withheld their votes from Eisner's re-election to the board; he was removed as chairman, though he stayed as chief executive.

In March 2005 Eisner announced he would step down a year before his contract expired. He handed day-to-day duties to his president and chief operating officer, Bob Iger, and resigned from the company entirely on September 30, 2005, severing his formal ties with Disney after 21 years in charge.

See also

• The Walt Disney Company
• Bob Iger
• Walt Disney World
• Disneyland Paris
• Disney's Animal Kingdom