Longtime Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter has been laid off following cost-cutting measures at Disney. Marvel Entertainment, which was a small division centered on consumer products ran separately from Marvel Studios, is also set to be folded entirely into other Disney units.
Perlmutter has had a controversial history with Marvel. He gained control of the company during the infamously rough 1990s, where the company was even forced to declare bankruptcy. Perlmutter expanded the company’s merchandising efforts by selling off the film rights to properties like X-Men and Spider-Man. Many fans today claim that those deals were horrible for the company, though others saw it as the only way to save the company.
Perlmutter sold Marvel to Disney in 2009 for $4 billion following the success of the first Iron Man film. Since then Perlmutter’s control over Marvel has slowly diminished with Kevin Feige gaining more control over Marvel Studios. Perlmutter stopped all involvement with Marvel movies in 2015 after a conflict with Feige over the budget for Doctor Strange, during which Perlmutter wanted to fire Feige, but was overruled by Disney CEO Bob Iger. Perlmutter remained in charge of Marvel Television until 2019. Since then Perlmutter has primarily been in charge of comics publishing and other parts of licensing such as for video games.
The decision to let Perlmutter go follows his attempt to get his friend and activist investor Nelson Peltz on the Disney Board, contacting senior executives about it six times from August to November of last year. Peltz wanted to join the board due to his vocal opposition against Iger’s return as CEO. Perlmutter claimed that Peltz would be able to “cut costs, revamp Disney’s streaming business and clean up the company’s messy succession planning”. As of right now, Peltz has not joined the Disney Board.
Perlmutter was not the only one let go from Marvel Entertainment. Disney also laid co-president of Marvel Entertainment Rob Steffens and chief counsel John Turitzin. According to insider Umberto Gonzalez, Rob Grosser has also been let go from his position. Grosser was a longtime third-party Marvel security consultant who was considered Perlmutter’s “fixer”.
Source: The New York Times
