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Comment by Fripplebubby | Hacker News Reader

Disclosure - I work for Disney but not in a decision-making role, I'm a nobody.

Yes, the company has been making moves recently that look exactly like any other company in the market rather than sticking to family values in all things. But the company is also structured like any other company - it's publicly traded and the CEO, Iger, reports to the board and the shareholders and has a fiduciary duty to maximize the share price, which contradicts a duty to remain family friendly or keep with Walt's express preferences. So, it's not mystery to me why this kind of thing happens, it's by design. Personally, I think the fiduciary duty thing is not a great way to make decisions.

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> fiduciary duty to maximize the share price

This is simply not true. They have duties to the shareholders and the best interests of the company, which is not the same thing as maximizing the share price.

It's sort of true. Like "no one got fired for buying IBM", no CEO gets fired for "raising share value". It's hard to argue that moves that raise the revenue and share price for a company are not in the best interest of the company and/or shareholders. Particularly when it's in a way that trades potential future value for realized value right now... the costs only get revealed in hindsight long after accountability for the CEO is possible.

Good point, I was oversimplifying. A strong CEO can make the case that doing X or Y, while it may not maximize the share price directly, is the right thing to do for other reasons. Iger is actually such a "strong" CEO, but he has to pick his battles and where to expend social capital too.

This is isn't a reliable strategy, since even if 9 out of 10 out times the judges agree and toss out the case, all it takes is for that one time they disagree.

> contradicts a duty to remain family friendly

Only in a very short-sighted way. Actions have long-term consequences, including brand identity actions especially when there are as many eyeballs as there are on Disney. These consequences hurt shareholders.

That's hardly new. Disney has been making and distributing R-rated films under their Touchstone studio since the '80s.

That should help explain the trend of "children in cages" theme in the latest Marvel movies. George Lucas called them child slavers in an interview.

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