Word: katzenberg
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...doubted the artistic talent at DreamWorks SKG when it was launched in 1994 amid hype befitting its superstar founders, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Overlooked in the face of such Tinseltown royalty, though, was that none were proven CEOs--a niggling detail that has become hard to miss after a series of gaffes since the trio sold shares of its animation division to the public last year...
...major events in DisneyWar are familiar: Eisner's fallings-out with lieutenants Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Ovitz, the turbulence at the acquired ABC network. But Stewart gleans fantastic fly-on-the-wall reportage from his inside access, interviews and Eisner's revealing notes and e-mails. Some of these incidents put Iger in a bad light just as the Disney board is considering CEO candidates. At the end of an argument between him and ABC chairman Lloyd Braun, Iger gets so agitated that he accidentally hits a waiter, who spills coffee down Iger's shirt. Not that Iger...
Stewart's take is that while a successful jerk may be forgiven all, Eisner indulged his vanity and vindictiveness to his company's harm. He cost Disney millions of dollars and vast embarrassment by letting Katzenberg's departure deteriorate into a lawsuit. He even badmouths Lost--his own network's hit--to Stewart, to rationalize having opposed it. ("Lost is terrible," he says. "Who cares about these people on a desert island...
...opened a window into troubles at the high-flying studio, launched in a blaze of publicity in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. The IPO filing reveals that DreamWorks' animation division lost more than $350 million over the past five years. It also warns of a litany of potential pitfalls, from the studio's meager slate of big-budget films to its undersized library of movies from which to generate cash during lean years...
...most stinging charge is that Eisner has repelled corporate talent, particularly anyone with CEO potential. Disney has suffered an exodus of executives during his tenure. Its cast members no longer include execs like Paul Pressler, now at Gap; Geraldine Laybourne, who quit to co-found Oxygen Media; and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the man behind The Lion King, who co-founded DreamWorks. Comcast's No. 2 executive, Burke, is a fast-track escapee. He spent 12 years at Disney and proved himself a skilled executive by recharging Disney's consumer-products division (it faltered after he left) and reviving Euro Disney (another...