Wow – Roy Disney, the son of Roy. O and nephew of Walt, has resigned from the Walt Disney Company where he was serving as Vice Chairman of the Board and Chairman of Feature Animation. There is now no member of the Disney family in the management of the company. He wrote a particularly frank letter of resignation to Michael Eisner:
1. The failure to bring back ABC Prime Time from the ratings abyss it has been in for years and your inability to program successfully the ABC Family Channel. Both of these failures have had, and I believe will continue to have, significant adverse impact on shareholder value.
2. Your consistent micro-management of everyone around you with the resulting loss of morale throughout the Company.
3. The timidity of your investments in our theme park business. At Disney’s California Adventure, Paris and now in Hong Kong, you have tried to build parks “on the cheap” and they show it and the attendance figures reflect it.
4. The perception by all of our stakeholders — consumers, investors, employees, distributors and suppliers — that the company is rapacious, soul-less, and always looking for the “quick buck” rather than long-term value which is leading to a loss of public trust.
5. The creative brain drain of the last several years, which is real and continuing, and damages our Company with the loss of every talented employee.
6. Your failure to establish and build constructive relationships with creative partners, especially Pixar, Miramax, and the cable companies distributing our products.
Wow. And he reminds Eisner that the letter must be made public according to various regulations. He’s got guts. I wonder if we will see a takeover attempt by the Disneys in the near future? [via boingboing]
