Disney on Thursday said that Chair & CEO BOB IGER "would stay on" until June '18, two years "later than his previously planned retirement date," according to Ben Fritz of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. A source said that Disney "plans next year" to name a COO, who will "likely be groomed as its next CEO." Iger has "run Disney without a No. 2 executive since he took over" in '05. Disney stock has "more than quadrupled in value" during Iger’s nine-year tenure, and it has "pulled ahead of media competitors through a focus on franchises as well as the strength of ESPN, as sports has become a more valuable piece of the pay-television ecosystem." Iger will "maintain the same annual compensation terms as under his existing contract, although he will be eligible for what the company described as a performance-based retention bonus if certain financial goals over a five-year period through the fiscal year that ends in September 2018 are met." Further contract details "weren’t immediately available" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/3). In N.Y., Brooks Barnes notes Iger last spring "began receiving private inquiries about his post-Disney plans." A "small but influential group of sports executives, for instance, pushed him to consider" becoming MLB's next commissioner. The rumblings "started a discussion by Disney’s board to retain Mr. Iger even longer than he had already agreed to stay" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/3).
