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Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from September 22, 1984 to September 30, 2005.
Early lifeMichael Eisner was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Mt. Kisco, New York and raised on Park Avenue in Manhattan. He attended the Lawrenceville School and graduated from Denison University in 1964 with a B.A. in English. He is a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. His grandfather was one of the first uniform suppliers to the Boy Scouts of America. ABC and Paramount
Diller left Paramount in 1984, and, as his protege, Eisner expected to assume Diller's position as studio chief. When he was passed over for the job, though, he left to look for work elsewhere and lobbied for the position of CEO of The Walt Disney Company. DisneyWalt Disney Productions had been struggling since its founder's death in 1966 and had narrowly survived takeover attempts by corporate raiders when its shareholders Sid Bass and Roy E. Disney brought on Eisner and former Warner Brothers chief Frank Wells to turn the company's situation around. During the second half of the 1980s and 1990s, the studio revitalised, and the division had a "golden age" with annual box office hits with such regularity that even their creative structure started to be known as the "Disney formula." Disney also broadened its adult offerings in film when then Disney Studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg acquired Miramax Films in 1993. Disney acquired many other media sources, including ABC and ESPN.
Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994, ending the longstanding feud between the two men. (The Lion King, which is the most successful hand-drawn animated picture, was released over two months later in his memory). Shortly thereafter, Jeffrey Katzenberg resigned and formed Dreamworks SKG with partners Steven Spielberg and David Geffen because Eisner would not appoint Katzenberg to Wells' now available post. The Save Disney war and Eisner's ousterIn 2003, Roy Edward Disney, also the son of co-founder Roy Oliver Disney, resigned from his positions as Disney vice chairman and chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation, accusing Eisner of micro-management, failures with the ABC television network, timidity in the theme park business, turning the Walt Disney Company into a "rapacious, soul-less" company, and refusing to establish a clear succession plan, as well as a string of box-office movie failures starting in the year 2000. On March 3 2004, at Disney's annual shareholders' meeting, a surprising and unprecedented 43% of Disney's shareholders, predominantly rallied by former board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, withheld their votes to re-elect Eisner to the corporate board of directors. This vigorous opposition, unusual in major public corporations, convinced Disney's board to strip him of his chairmanship and give that position to former U.S. Senator George Mitchell. However, the board would not immediately remove Eisner as chief executive. As criticism of Eisner intensified in the wake of the shareholder meeting, Eisner's position became more and more tenuous, and on March 13 2005, Eisner announced that he would step down as CEO one year before his contract expired. On September 30 Eisner resigned both as an executive and as a member of the board of directors, and, severing all formal ties with the company, he waived his contractual rights to perks such as the use of a corporate jet and an office at the company's Burbank headquarters. Eisner's replacement was his longtime lieutenant, Bob Iger. Eisner's struggle to maintain control of the legendary entertainment company was the subject of journalist James B. Stewart's bestselling book DisneyWar. Post-DisneyOn October 7 2005, Eisner hosted The Charlie Rose Show. His guests were John Travolta and his ex-boss-turned-rival, Barry Diller. Months later, on January 10, 2006, CNBC announced that Eisner would be given his own hour-long, prime-time interview show, Conversations with Michael Eisner. Eisner has recently invested in an Internet video distribution network named Veoh Networks ([1]). In March 2007 it was reported that Eisner's investment firm, The Tornante Company, launched a studio, Vuguru, that will produce and distribute videos for the Internet, portable media devices and cell phones. "The entire concept here is content is king," Eisner said in a phone interview. "What will drive traffic is interest in the subject matter." [2] The first series produced by Vuguru is Prom Queen. BooksWork In Progress (1998)- ISBN 0-375-50071-5 Camp (2005) Portrayals in film and televisionEisner has been parodied in television shows:
Personal lifeHis sons are Breck, Eric, and Anders Eisner. In 1994, he underwent a Quadruple Bypass surgery.[3]
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Further Reading
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