Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac Perlmutter who unsuccessfully worked to shake up the Walt Disney Company’s board in the past year, has been laid off as part of a cost-cutting campaign, Disney confirmed the move.
Perlmutter, 80, was told by phone on Wednesday that Marvel Entertainment, a small division centred on consumer products and run separately from Marvel Studios, was redundant and would be folded into larger Disney business units, according to two Disney executives briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel matter.
On Monday, Disney started to eliminate 7,000 jobs, about 4 per cent of its global total, as part of $5.5 billion in cuts intended to improve Disney’s financial results and position the company for streaming-fueled growth, The New Work Times reports.
Perlmutter, known as Ike, could not immediately be reached for comment.
An irascible and unrelenting executive, Perlmutter has been seen as a distraction inside Disney for more than a decade — most recently when he pushed for a friend, the activist investor Nelson Peltz, to join the Disney board.
Perlmutter contacted Disney board members and senior Disney executives six times from August to November to push for Peltz to join the board, according to a securities filing.
When he was rebuffed, Peltz started a proxy battle to put himself on the board, saying he would cut costs, revamp Disney’s streaming business and clean up the company’s messy succession planning.
Peltz withdrew in February when Robert A Iger, Disney’s chief executive, unveiled a restructuring and the cost cuts, along with the likely restoration of Disney’s dividend.
Since then, Perlmutter’s future at Disney has been a topic of water cooler debate inside the company, with most employees concluding that his days were numbered. On Wednesday, Disney also laid off Rob Steffens, co-president of Marvel Entertainment, and John Turitzin, chief counsel for the division.
A Disney spokesman confirmed the job eliminations at Marvel Entertainment, but declined to comment further.
Marvel Entertainment President Dan Buckley will remain and report to Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios. Previously, Buckley reported both to him and Perlmutter.
Perlmutter sold Marvel to Disney in 2009 for $4 billion. He gained control of the superhero company in the late 1990s and greatly expanded its merchandising business by licensing properties like X-Men and Spider-Man to movie studios.
