Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a recent investor meeting that the company will “quiet the noise” from culture-war controversies. This approach comes as Disney remains mired in an arduous legal dispute with Governor DeSantis — a dispute that started when Disney protested Florida legislation that banned sexual and gender curricula for public-school students.
A report from Needham media analyst Laura Martin, who attended the investor presentation at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., included the statement from Iger, who shared the company’s strategy for future expansion.
Disney announced Tuesday that it will nearly double its planned investment in its theme parks, to roughly $60 billion over the next ten years, according to a securities filing. The company may be pivoting from relying on its streaming service, Disney +, to propel growth, the report suggests.
“This week’s Orlando investor event implies a material capital allocation pivot toward Parks/Ships/Hotels/Time Shares and other physical assets as its core growth drivers for the next decade,” Martin wrote in her report, obtained by CNBC host Kelly Evans.
Disney filed a lawsuit against DeSantis and other state leaders in April accusing them of launching a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” against the company that began last year when Disney spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law. Then–Disney CEO Bob Chapek publicly criticized the bill, which originally prohibited the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K–3. The measure was later expanded to apply to grades K–8.
DeSantis responded last year by signing a bill to strip Disney of its 56-year-old “independent special district” status, which had granted it the privilege of creating its own regulations, building codes, and other municipal services. Lawmakers ultimately decided against dissolving Disney’s Reedy Creek special district, but they elected to give DeSantis the power to appoint the district’s board members. The state-run DeSantis-appointed board, renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, in an effort to transfer power from Disney to the state, then voted to nullify two agreements that the Disney-controlled board had made.
Last month, DeSantis urged Iger to drop the lawsuit. “they’re going to lose,” the governor said during an appearance on CNBC’s Last Call.
Given the ongoing lawsuits and the fractured relationship between Disney and Florida, there were questions about whether Iger would reveal plans to move some of the company’s operations and projects out of the state. Tuesday’s investor meeting appeared to confirm that such a move is not on the immediate horizon.
In July, Iger told CNBC, “The last thing I want is for the company to be drawn into any culture wars.” Referencing the fight between Disney and DeSantis, he said, “I’m not sure that was handled very well” by the company.