Today, the company announced James Gorman will take on the role of chairman in 2025, while also announcing that a new CEO will be revealed in early 2026. Bloomberg's Felix Gillette joins us in Look. James Gorman, former Morgan Stanley CEO, has been leading the succession chase since August. But why is he now taking on the additional responsibility of being chairman of Disney's board overall? Well, I think Disney's been telegraphing this for a while, and Gorman's the new face of the board. He's got a strong track record in terms of succession. And succession is the number one issue in Disney's future. Who's going to replace Bob Iger? He doesn't have the same baggage that his predecessor did in terms of, you know, what went wrong in the previous Disney succession plans. So I think this makes a lot of sense in terms of just elevating him and giving him a formal role in terms of making this next choice.

Mark Parker retires James Gorman to the helm from a board level. Take us back to the CEO. And who are the names in the running here internally and maybe even externally? Yeah, I mean, I think at this point it's, you know, the four direct reports to Iger, the head of parts, the head of TV, the head of movies, and the head of ESPN. And, you know, everyone the Kremlinology is that Disney everyone's very eagerly watching all of the speculation about, you know, who's up, who's down. I think the company has done a pretty good job at this point of keeping its cards close to the vest if there is a leading candidate at this point. It really hasn't gotten out. And so I don't think this move changes that at all. We can have to wait a few weeks until Disney has earnings. But based on post Netflix, how is Disney doing right now?

I mean, Disney's had a good last year. When you think about the recent Emmys, probably the strongest Emmy performance in the company's history on the TV front. You know, winning the show gotten the bare inside out to deliver hugely for the company after a bunch of stumbles on the film side. You know, the parks have been a little bit more mixed. And in terms of ESPN's future, still dealing with the transition to direct to consumer. There's a lot of open questions still about the company's future. But you have to say it's been a little bit better, especially in the entertainment side.

Disney Names James Gorman as New Chairman

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