This morning, from 10-11:25 a.m., Disney execs -- led by John Pepper (Chairman of the Board) and Robert Iger (CEO) -- rolled out the company's plans and products to stockholders who had made the trip to New Mexico for the presentation. What follows is a TAG member's report:
Disney characters were entertaining kids outside the auditorium, video cameras picking up the action so it could be projected onto the big screen inside. (Pretty much the same deal as at the Anaheim shareholders meeting two years ago.) Disney Chairman of the Board John Pepper introduced CEO Robert Iger, who proceeded to unveil projects and films in the pipeline, as well as company performance. Some of the highlights:
*The company's stock price has risen 15% over the last five years, outpacing the 11% rise of the S & P 500.
* A short clip of Wall*E was shown, with the announcement that "This is the first time this has been shown publically."
* Roy Disney was in attendance, although he didn't take the stage or speak but merely stood up from the audience when he was intro'd after the board of directors.
* John Lasseter wasn't on stage. If he was there in Albuquerque, he didn't make his presence known.
The Q & A, as it often is, was sort of lively. A stockholder wanted to know if Song of the South was going to be released onto DVD (Answer: There are no plans to put it on little silver disks "at this time.")
A stockholder asked if Mr. Iger's $29 million salary wasn't perhaps excessive, and couldn't the company lower it to, say, $20 million? (Answer:He's compensated in line with executives of companies of equivalent size.)
A stockholder wanted to know if they could pay dividends quarterly rather than annually. (The company's most recent dividend was 35 cents per share.) (Answer: It would be cost prohibitive, particularly since there are so may single-shareholders. The company has done the annual payouts instead of quarterly for the past ten years.)
The whole meeting took less than an hour-and-a-half. All in all, one of the less exciting stockholder meetings that I've attended.
Addendum: The picture up top? That's the Albuquerque Convention Center, where the meeting was held.
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17 comments:
> John Lasseter wasn't on stage.
> If he was there in Albuquerque,
> he didn't make his presence known.
Civil engineers were unable to make the last-minute structural changes required to support Lasseter's presence onstage, so he was forced to return to Emeryville.
Here is footage of his plane trying to land as John lumbered around the aisle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4OxGkmvPng
Any news about "The Princess and the Frog", "Bolt" and "Rapunzel"?
They're all in production.
Hey Steve,
Any word on how the politically correctness of changing her name to Tiana, the Frog Princess to The Princess and the Frog and other things like her being a chambermaid will affect the story?
Will the villain still be black? Will he be involved in Voo Doo? Or has Disney continually warped the story so as to not offend anyone?
Have no idea. I make it kind of a policy to stay ignorant about story stuff, so I honestly know nothing.
But even if I did, I would probably keep my comments to a minimum. It's outside my current job description.
Thank you Steve for the article...
I have only a question: who are animators who work on "Rapunzel"? I know that Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg and Mark Henn are working on "The Princess and the Frog" (according to IMDB, Mark Henn is supervising animator of Tiana, is it correct this rumor?)... I know that probably John Ripa and Jason Ryan are working on "Rapunzel"... do you know who are working on this movie? Renee Holt or Tony Fucile or others?
Thank you.
Ics.
Disney is still making Bolt so not many people are on Rapunzel yet. John Ripa is working story on Rapunzel, but none of the other people you listed are.
I guess there's no limit on the length of comments, then...
So light the match and drink the kool-aid already, Branch Davidian, and spare everyone the histrionics. I take it your Disney Corp. portfolio didn't pan out as well as your financial advisor said it would?
Or did you just wander into the wrong blog from alt.rec.art.revelations?
actually, just google the first paragraph and see how many places the post pops up. this is the number one reason the internet fails to deliver informed and rational content.
And hollywood came to a complete stand-still over writer internet residuals for content exactly like that. It makes reality tv look like Shakespeare.
There were paragraphs in that?
I just love how people write things like that, totally ignorant of history. The richest 1% have *always* owned a hugely disproportionate amount of the wealth.
They just have a harder time putting people to death nowadays. :)
"Don’t believe one optimistic word from any public figure about the economy or humanity in general..."
(sound of cuckoo clock)
Jason Ryan left Disney for Dreamworks. A terrible loss for the Mouse... one of many.
A note about the deletion above:
It's gone because it's lengthy, and off-topic. But mostly lengthy.
We're focusing on animation and entertainment unions here, not a dissertation about how the rich control the world.
I want a diatribe about the obvious, I'll read THE NATION.
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