Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman.
Since Walt Disney’s death in 1966, The Walt Disney Company had narrowly survived takeover attempts. Throughout the 2nd half of the 1980s and early 1990s, Disney was revitalized. Beginning using the movies Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and The Little Mermaid (1989), its main cartoon studio have a string of commercial and critical successes. Disney additionally expanded its mature offerings in picture when subsequently Disney Studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg got Miramax Films in 1993. Disney got many other media sources, including ABC and ESPN. In the first portion of the 1990s, Michael Eisner and his associates set out to plan “The Disney Decade” which was to feature new parks around the world, present park growths, new movies, and new media investments. While a number of the suggestions were finished, most weren’t.
Glenn Martin, DDS, Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, The Wuzzles, Conversations with Michael Eisner, The Wonderful World of Disney (1997)
Star Sign
Pisces
#
Quote
1
Success is not a formula, but is based on everything else - the creativity, the right people, the right team.
2
[on what he would most like to be remembered for at Disney, in a Newsweek interview] Not screwing it up.
#
Fact
1
Developed Nick at Nite show "Glenn Martin DDS". [August 2009]
2
Facing the biggest challenge during his time at Disney as he faces calls for his resignation by Roy Edward Disney and Stanley Gold (former Disney executives) and Walt Disney Co. faces a takeover bid from Comcast, Inc. [February 2004]
3
Won a lawsuit brought by the Disney shareholders over the compensation package of fired executive Michael Ovitz. Even though the judge ruled that Eisner did not owe the Disney shareholders any money, the judge ruled that Eisner often put his own interests over that of his company. [August 2005]
4
Graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
5
While he was an executive at Paramount, he said the best script he ever read was Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
6
Underwent open heart surgery in 1996.
7
After receiving an unprecedented rebuke from shareholders in 2004 with 43% of shares being withheld for his re-election, he stepped down as the Chairman of the Board, and continued to hold the position of CEO.
8
President and COO of Paramount Pictures (1976-1984).
9
Has been criticized in recent times for having a fractious style of management which has led to a string of top executives leaving the company.
10
He was heavily criticized for building a Board of Directors which was filled with friends and supporters who did not effectively balance his own influence in the boardroom. Reforms that were made under pressure brought in renowned diplomat and negotiator Senator George Mitchell, but also removed the harshest critic of Eisner in the boardroom - Roy Edward Disney.
11
Under his leadership, Disney was transformed from a film studio and theme park company to one of the largest media powerhouses in the world. The company's market capitalization grew from $2 billion in 1984 to $61 billion in 2001. The company is now worth $50 billion.
12
CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney Co. (1984-2005).
13
When Barry Diller brought Eisner to Paramount in 1976, the company was firmly in sixth place (out of six) in the movie industry, without a single release in the box-office top ten. Two years later, half of the top box-office were Paramount productions, and Paramount was the top movie studio.
14
As a top programming executive at ABC in the 1970s, he was instrumental in taking the network from its usual third place to the top through programming like Happy Days (1974).
15
Worked his way up from an mid-level manager to the VP of Prime Time Production at ABC (1966-1976).
16
When dissatisfied with his work at NBC, he mailed out hundreds of resumés to further his career. He received just one response - from Barry Diller at ABC.
17
His favorite film is Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro (1988). The film became Disney property in 2004; it was previously owned by Fox and Troma.
18
Began with a minor position at NBC, then moved to ABC, Paramount, then to Walt Disney.
19
He wrote his autobiography, a second book about his summer camp and was the subject of two other books, "The Keys to the Kingdom" and "Disney War".
20
In the early 1990s, after he cashed out some of the options he enjoyed which were tied to the performance of the Walt Disney Co., he walked away with over $100 million in cash.
21
When the Walt Disney Company bought ABC, Eisner controlled the network that gave him his start as a young executive.
$1 Billion
