Longtime Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter has been fired after Disney cut costs. Marvel Entertainment, a small consumer-focused division that operated separately from Marvel Studios, is also set to be fully integrated into other Disney entities.
Perlmutter has a controversial history with Marvel. He gained control of the company during the notoriously rough 1990s, during which the company was even forced to file for bankruptcy. Perlmutter expanded the company’s merchandising efforts by selling the film rights to properties such as X-Men And Spiderman. Many fans today claim these deals were terrible for the company, although others saw it as the only way to save the company.
Perlmutter sold Marvel to Disney for $4 billion in 2009 after the success of the first iron man Movie. Since then, Perlmutter’s control of Marvel has slowly diminished, with Kevin Feige gaining more control of Marvel Studios. Perlmutter ended all involvement in 2015 after a dispute with Feige over the Marvel film budget Doctor Strange, in which Perlmutter wanted to fire Feige but was overruled by Disney CEO Bob Iger. Perlmutter remained in charge of Marvel Television through 2019. Since then, Perlmutter has been primarily responsible for comic book publishing and other parts of licensing, such as video games.
The decision to let Perlmutter go follows his attempt to bring friend and activist investor Nelson Peltz to the Disney board by reaching out to senior executives about it six times from August to November last year. Peltz wanted to join the board because he had been vocal in opposing Iger’s return as CEO. Perlmutter claimed Peltz was able to “cut costs, revitalize Disney’s streaming business and clean up the company’s messy succession planning.” As of now, Peltz has not joined the Disney Board.
Perlmutter wasn’t the only one to be fired from Marvel Entertainment. Disney also named Marvel Entertainment Co-President Rob Steffens and Chief Counsel John Turitzin. According to insiders Umberto GonzalesRob Grosser was also dismissed from his post. Grosser was a longtime outside Marvel security advisor who was considered Perlmutter’s “fixer”.
Source: The New York Times
