Last Year They Predicted Iger Would Return, This Year it Gets Spicy

CNBC’s Alex Sherman collated predictions from media executives who predicted Iger would return as Disney’s CEO last year; now they’ve released this year’s predictions for the Mouse House again.

The Walt Disney Company has had a year for the books, though not all of it was good. The company was in the news and under fire for raising prices of Disney+, the Disney Parks, and most recently for the ousting of former controversial CEO Bob Chapek and the return of his predecessor Bob Iger. Not to mention the reorganization of the company that came along with that.

But making its presence known is a CNBC article from last year, compiling predictions from media executives who chose to remain anonymous, about events that would shake up the industry, and the kicker? They predicted Bob Iger would be back. While many thought that situation to be impossible, it is where we find ourselves today.

This year, CNBC released another article in the same vein with its predictions for 2023, and they’re juicy.

Here are the top Disney predictions from the article:

Disney might buy Netflix.

With Iger’s return to Disney as CEO, one executive predicted that would be his “signature move.” However, CNBC’s Alex Sherman points out it might be a long shot. It does bode mentioning, however, that if Disney does merge with Netflix with each company’s $165 billion and $130 billion evaluations respectively, it would be one of the largest deals in history.

An ex-Disney executive returns

Predictions include Kevin Mayer, who, when passed over for CEO, went to TikTok to helm the social media rising star as CEO instead. Tom Staggs, Mayer’s co-founder of Candle Media, is also on the table to return to take Iger’s place. Though, Sherman points out, doing this would be admitting that Iger made a mistake with Chapek the first time.

Iger will stay Disney CEO

As the article states, history has a way of repeating itself, and Iger’s behavior shows he has a hard time leaving. Executives predict he will stay past his current end date of December 31, 2024.

Disney CFO Christine McCarthy will leave

While McCarthy has been revealed to be one of the primary minds behind Chapek’s ousting when she went to the board to gain the vote of no-confidence, many thought she might take Iger’s place as CEO. However, it appears executives are more confident she will leave in 2023 since Iger may view her suspiciously, considering McCarthy was once part of Chapek’s inner circle.

Whatever ends up happening, 2023 will certainly prove to be an interesting year with these possibilities on the cards.