Latest in Michael Eisner

Around 100 hours before the deadline for all Disney shareholders to cast their ballots in the acrid board clash between the Mouse House and activist investor Nelson Peltz, one of the country's top pension funds just rolled its cannons onto the battlefield. With 6.7 million shares in Disney, the…

Disney and its current CEO, Bob Iger, have secured the backing of Iger’s onetime boss, former Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner. In a statement posted to social media, Eisner didn’t name Nelson Peltz, whose Trian Fund Management is mounting an offensive to win two seats on Disney’s board at the April 3…

When Michael Eisner was making a ceremonial exit as Disney's CEO in 2005 he acknowledged that the intrigues of succession had become "Shakespearean." Rival corporate factions were vying for power. Some insiders were persuaded that Eisner never would actually…

Michael Eisner, the former Walt Disney chief who currently runs holding company Tornante, was upbeat about his two successors at Disney, Bob Iger and Bob Chapek. The former officially left the hallowed halls as of December 31 and the latter, in place for almost a year, is firing up. "I am a big fan of Disney. I am a…

“I’d love to do the Muppets again but Disney doesn't want me,” Frank Oz told The Guardian in an interview published today. That’s right, the man who brought to life Cookie Monster, Grover, Fozzie Bear, Bert and Yoda says he is not welcome in Disney’s Muppetverse. What about that other tentpole of the beloved Jim…

Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company is backing an initial public offering for sports trading card company Topps Inc., with the former Disney boss set to remain chairman. The $1.3 billion public move will be the result of a merger with a SPAC, one of the popular investment vehicles also known as blank-check companies. A…

Former senior Disney and Discovery streaming and tech execs Thursday announced a new venture called Struum backed by a multi-million dollar investment from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner through his Tornante Company. Founders of Struum, which aims to make it easier for people to discover new streaming programming…

As the pandemic wears on, New York and Los Angeles have never felt farther apart—and it seems likely that even more distancing, both social and cultural, will be the unhappy drill for years to come. In truth, the two great sister cities have never been as close as you might think, at least in movie and media terms…

Michael Eisner’s the Tornante Company has brought Siobhan Bachman aboard as Head of Development. The veteran TV exec will develop, pitch and produce new projects across all platforms with a focus on expanding the BoJack Horseman producer’s existing work in live-action programming. Bachman has nearly two decades of…

Nearly a year after first taking the much-accused Harvey Weinstein to court, Paz de la Huerta has today added the Walt Disney Company, its former CEO Michael Eisner and current CEO Bob Iger plus Bob Weinstein and Miramax to a revised version multi-claim version of the complaint – and Disney wants out ASAP. “Defendant…

Michael Ovitz was ever the master of both confession and concealment — the shared confidence that really wasn't, or the backdoor whisper that had to be denied. When I was pursuing him, in a reportorial sense, for a 1986 Wall Street Journal profile, for instance, he struck a pose of complete resistance. But he also had…

Book titles posing a question are considered risky in the publishing business, especially if they're widely hyped. A case in point: Who Is Michael Ovitz? published this week by Portfolio/Penguin. The book was, in fact, written by Ovitz, prompting some of his former colleagues and clients to propose an alternate title…