#abcdisney-decision

#abcdisney-decision

The Disney Experiences segment just delivered record quarterly revenue of $10.006 billion, and D'Amaro built that machine. The segment generated $9.99 billion in full-year operating income for FY2025, making it the company's most profitable division. A CEO whose fingerprints are all over that result is not a liability.

Instead, he focused on the last three years, when he returned to the CEO role in 2022 after leaving it in 2020. When he first came back, the streaming business had lost $4 billion that year, Iger said, and required massive organizational restructuring to "create more accountability." All that effort seems to have paid off, financially speaking. Last quarter, Disney's SVOD services grew 11% year-over-year to more than $5 billion, driven by growth in both subscription and advertising revenue.

Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday agreed to be acquired by Paramount Skydance in a deal worth $110 billion, Reuters and Deadline reported, citing remarks by Warner Bros. executive. Bruce Campbell, Warner Bros' chief revenue and strategy officer, made the announcement at a morning town hall, according to Reuters.

Josh D'Amaro appears to be the frontrunner in the race to be Disney's next CEO, and the Mouse House's latest quarterly earnings showed why. Disney's experiences business, which D'Amaro oversees, is the backbone of a company that's being weighed down by the struggling pay-TV business and isn't yet lifted up by its streaming profits. And when that part of the business sneezes, the stock catches a cold.

D'Amaro, 54, has been serving as chairman of Disney's theme parks and experiences division, the unit that generates the majority of the company's operating income through its parks, cruises, and consumer products. He will succeed longtime CEO Bob Iger, who returned to the role in 2022 after previously leading Disney from 2005 to 2020. The move caps a multiyear succession process closely watched by Wall Street, Hollywood, and fans of the company around the world.