BURBANK, CALIFORNIA: Walt Disney Co has laid off Isaac Perlmutter as the chairman of Marvel Entertainment as part of a cost-cutting drive.
The layoff comes a year after famously frugal Perlmutter unsuccessfully worked to shake up the company’s board last year.
Perlmutter, 80, had also supported activist shareholder Nelson Peltz’s unsuccessful bid for a seat on Disney’s corporate board earlier this year.
The executive was informed by the phone on Wednesday that Marvel Entertainment, a small division within the Disney company responsible for comic book publishing and mostly consumer products, will be merged into larger Disney business units, New York Times and CNN reported.
Marvel Entertainment President Dan Buckley will remain and report to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.
On Monday, Disney began laying off 7,000 employees in an effort to save $5.5 billion in costs and turn its streaming business lucrative. Perlmutter, who outmanoeuvred billionaire Carl Icahn for control of Marvel in the late 1990s, sold the company to Disney for $4 billion in 2009.
Disney CEO Bob Iger restructured Marvel in 2015, putting Marvel Studios under Walt Disney Studios. In his autobiography, “The Ride of a Lifetime,” Iger described the decision as detecting “a growing tension” between the New York-based Marvel team and the Hollywood film group, adding, “I had to intervene.”
According to multiple sources, the decision enraged Perlmutter, who retained the title of Marvel Entertainment chairman but would have no oversight of the film studio’s budgets or creative process.
According to regulatory filings, Perlmutter, who friends say was dissatisfied with Disney’s financial performance under former CEO Bob Chapek, attempted to contact Disney board members and executives multiple times last year to lobby for Peltz to join the board.
Peltz and Perlmutter are friends who hang out in social circles in the same Palm Beach, Florida.
Disney insiders were sceptical of Perlmutter’s efforts on behalf of an activist shareholder. According to one outside advisor to the entertainment company, Perlmutter may have been motivated by his resentment at seeing his role at the company reduced.
