After being the CEO of the Walt Disney Company for only two years after his predecessor, Bob Iger, was seemingly forced out, Bob Chapek has been seen as a divisive figure amongst both fans and employees. A few months ago a number of former cast members started a Change.org petition to have him fired and currently almost 98,000 signatures. 

With things such as the vastly increased ticket prices for the theme parks, the poor customer service, the current state of the theme parks, the controversial Genie+ app, the $32.5 Million 2021 end of the year bonus, the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel debacle and other incidents have earned the still fairly new CEO a poor reputation, and nicknames like “Cheap-ek” and “Paycheck”.

Things seem have been going really bad for the company head, so much so that even the shareholders seem to be turning against him. According to multiple posts on Reddit, a number of Disney fans have bought an undisclosed amount of stock in the company and are threatening to vote against Chapek’s re-election come the March 9th annual shareholder’s meeting.

One of the posts stated:

“If you are a Disney shareholder you likely received an email yesterday asking you to vote in the annual meeting. Bob Chapek is up for re-election to the board of directors. This is the most direct way to let Disney know if you are unhappy with his leadership, at least more so than complaining on Reddit or signing an online petition. It may seem insignificant, and will likely not be successful in removing him directly, but recall that Michael Eisner lost 43% of the vote in 2004 after Roy E. Disney lead a campaign to oust him and he was removed shortly thereafter. We can do this again.“

Another Reddit user added:

“The magic is gone. Parks were oversold, 2 hour+ waits for everything, major rides like Ratatouille and Rise of the Resistance ‘down’ all day, plus charging now for fast pass access, charging for parking at Disney resorts. No parades, food prices out of control. Seriously, how many millions does one CEO need. We’ve been to Disney annually for the last 12 years and what’s going on there now is heartbreaking.“

These currently unnamed individuals certainly seem serious about this. Even if they can’t get him voted out. If the group is large enough this could be another ding to his reputation.

Though it must be noted that all this information comes from Reddit, a website with people can spread false information. Meaning that these users may simply not be shareholders at all and just mouthing off. But is still doesn’t give the company a good look.

One argument in Chapek’s defense is that he became CEO fairly recently and may not have had full control these past two years as Bob Iger remained at the company like Jacob Marley’s ghost until the end of 2021. Now with Chapek fully in charge perhaps he could turn things around?

It will be interesting to see the upcoming shareholders meeting this March and we will see if this supposed vote will possibly take place, and if it does it will be interested to see the results.

Source: New York Post