The Walt Disney Company, or more commonly known as just Disney, is the largest media group in the world based on gross revenue alone. It was founded by Walt and Roy Disney on the 16th October 1923 and was originally known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. It took on it contemporary name in 1986. Although best known for it films from the Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, Disney also owns other studios, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and 14 theme parks around the world.
The company's current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President is Robert 'Bob' Iger. He was made president of the company in 2000. Then in 2005 he succeeded Micheal Eisner as the company's CEO, this was after a shake up of management by Roy E. Disney (Roy O. Disney' son). In 2006 he oversaw the acquisition of Pixar Studios (which at the time was owned by Steve Jobs) for $7.4 billion in an all-stock transaction, even though there was a strained relationship between the two companies. Then in 2009, he led the company to acquire Marvel Entertainment, which allowed Disney to broaden its character franchises. The reason for the sudden change of management came after a a series of failures in different areas of the company. Starting when Roy E. Disney had an application for an extension of his term as a board member rejected, he put in for resignation on 30th November 2003, explaining that there was a "serious differences of opinion about the direction and style of management" within the company. He had struggled with the CEO at the time Michael Eisner after more supporters of Eisner were appointed high ranking positions, meaning that Disney's influence began to wane within the company. Shortly after his resignation he set up the website 'savedisney.com', in order to try and oust Eisner and those who supported him, as well as trying to re-vamp Disney as a whole. So on the 3rd March 2004 at an Annual Disney Shareholders meeting, it came as a surprise that an amazing unprecedented 43% of Disney's shareholders, predominantly rallied by former board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, voted to oppose the re-election of Eisner to the corporate board of directors. This opposition allowed them the chance to strip Eisner of his chairmanship and give it to George J. Mitchell, Roy Disney's campaign regarded Mitchell himself unfavorably; 25% of shareholders opposed Mitchell's re-election to the board in the same election. On March 13 2005, Eisner announced that he would step down as CEO of the company. Roy eventually re-joined the company as a non-voting Director Emeritus (meaning professor) and consultant. On August 7th of the same year, Roy shut down the 'savedisney' website, and it officially went offline.
