Good morning.
I don’t often listen to earnings calls because they are usually a dull recitation of numbers that can be more easily digested in written form. But this week’s Disney call was an exception. I wish I had been there.
CEO Bob Iger gave an Oscar-worthy performance. In the first two minutes of the call, before citing a single number, he announced:
1. Disney has hired ex-Alabama coach Nick Saban—heart throb of millions of middle-aged Southern men—to be an ESPN commentator. Roll Tide.
2. The company is releasing in November a feature-length animated sequel to Moana—global symbol of the power of diversity.
3. The company is investing in Epic Games, maker of Fortnite—the obsession of post-pubescent male children everywhere.
4. And Disney will be the exclusive streaming home of a new, extended version of the movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, celebrating a star who has proven herself to have unmatched appeal for girls—and a surprising number of guys—of all ages.
Anyone we missed there? Add to that the fact that Disney “leads the industry with 20 nominations headed into the Oscars”—which, by the way, will be broadcast on Disney’s ABC network. And, oh yes, the numbers were pretty good too: Operating income up 27%, adjusted earnings per share up 23%, streaming operating income up 86%, and a healthy $7.5 billion in cost savings for good measure.
The performance pushed Disney’s stock price up more than 10% yesterday. The only person whose heart wasn’t touched was Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who is bidding to join Disney’s board. “It’s déjà vu all over again,” a spokesman for Peltz’s Trian Partners said. “We saw this movie last year and we didn’t like the ending.”
Sorry, Nelson. When it comes to telling stories, you can’t beat Disney—at least as long as Iger is at the helm.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
How do you measure performance?
Almost three-quarters of business leaders feel they need new ways to measure employee performance, according a Deloitte survey published earlier this week. Workers now need skills that are harder to measure, like problem-solving and creativity. According to Deloitte, just 8% of business leaders think they’re doing “great things” in measuring productivity. Fortune
A $7 trillion chip project
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to raise as much as $7 trillion for new semiconductor manufacturing from investors like the government of the United Arab Emirates. Chip sales last year totaled $527 billion. Altman has complained that a shortage of chips is a bottleneck in AI development. The Wall Street Journal
AI battle lines
Google unveiled Gemini, the latest version of its AI platform, on Thursday. Google hopes to put Gemini in the hands of the 3.6 billion people who use Android, its mobile operating service. AI companies like Google and Microsoft are increasingly competing on pricing, distribution and business model—not on who has the most powerful AI model. Fortune
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
VA Secretary: Returning to the office helps Veterans by Denis McDonough
Mozilla names new CEO as it pivots to data privacy by Diane Brady
Why Workday took more than a year and an unusual leadership model to transition in their new CEO by Azure Gilman
Boomers believe they don’t have enough money to retire. Signs point to them being, sadly, right by Chloe Berger
Budget airline Ryanair offered to snap up extra Boeing aircraft after Alaska Airlines blowout—but now it says it is concerned about the quality after all by Prarthana Prakash
Novo Nordisk’s CEO says he’s fielding calls from ‘scared’ junk food suppliers asking for advice over Ozempic surge by Ryan Hogg
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
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