Just two weeks after Mickey Mouse turned 75, there is mucho turmoil in the House of Mouse. Michele just discussed Roy Disney's departure from the Disney board yesterday and his scathing criticism of chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner.
Now a second board member has resigned:
- Stanley Gold, a key ally of former Disney vice chairman Roy E. Disney, resigned from the media and entertainment conglomerate's board Monday becoming the second vocal opponent of chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner to quit the board in two days.
Gold issued a long rebuke to Eisner and The Walt Disney Co.'s board Monday, seconding complaints made Sunday by Roy Disney and further criticizing the board for being a rubber stamp to senior management.
Gold also repeated Roy Disney's calls for Eisner to resign.
"It is clear to me that this board is unwilling to tackle the difficult issues I believe this company continues to face - management failures and accountability for those failures, operational deficiencies, imprudent capital allocations, the cannibalization of certain company icons for short-term gain, the enormous loss of creative talent over the last years, the absence of succession planning and the lack of strategic focus," Gold wrote. [AP]
Ooh, burn. I wonder if all this means anything.
- Sunday, Roy Disney stepped down from the board of directors and called on Eisner to resign.
"It is my sincere belief that it is you that should be leaving and not me," Disney wrote to Eisner in a scathing letter.
Disney, 73, is the last family member active in the company, founded in the 1920s by his uncle Walt and his father, Roy O. Disney, who was the business manager. He said he also is quitting as chairman of the company's animation division.
His departure may have been a pre-emptive move to avoid being forced from the board. Its governance and nominating committee decided against recommending him for another term because he is over the mandated retirement age of 72, the company said Sunday.
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