Disney CEO’s no good, very bad week: Josh D’Amaro is dealing with 3 major headaches in his first week |
Disney CEO’s no good, very bad week: Josh D’Amaro is dealing with 3 major headaches in his first week
Josh D’Amaro stepped into that corner CEO office at Walt Disney with a clear goal, pledging the company would focus “on coming together as one Disney to deliver a more connected, personalized, and immersive experience to our consumers.”
D’Amaro described a world of Disney entertainment that consolidates its vast intellectual property of movies, games, experiences, and more under one roof. It took a week for some of the biggest bets underpinning that vision to collapse.
The vision of a sweeping field of Disney content relied on multiple external partnerships worth billions of dollars. Several of them unraveled entirely.
D’Amaro, a veteran leader in Disney’s theme park division, was brought in to steady the ship after a period of uncertain leadership. But three major developments, mostly stemming from decisions made far away from the Magic Kingdom, have made his debut at the top of the company memorable for all the wrong reasons.
OpenAI pulls out the rug
A watershed deal Disney struck with OpenAI late last year dissolved suddenly on Tuesday when the tech company announced it was closing down its Sora video generator app, part of OpenAI’s wider efforts to contain spending ahead of a possible IPO later this year. That ended what was supposed to be a three-year $1 billion partnership, under........