Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, the hard-charging chairman of Disney-owned consumer products unit Marvel Entertainment, has been let go amid the conglomerate's broad-reaching layoffs, and his division has been subsumed into Disney's larger consumer products business.
Marvel Entertainment is -- or was -- a separate, much smaller division relative to Marvel Studios, focused on businesses like tsotski product licensing. Amid the cuts, Marvel Entertainment’s co-president, Rob Steffens, and chief counsel, John Turitzin, were also let go.
Division President Dan Buckley will remain at Disney and report to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige.
The New York Times was the first to report on Disney's latest cuts, with myriad other publications stepping in and confirming Wednesday morning's news.
The 80-year-old Perlmutter, described as "an irascible and unrelenting executive" by NYT's Brooks Barnes, was fresh off a failed boardroom coup attempt, and his departure hasn't come to a surprise to many at Disney's Burbank, Calif. headquarters, Barnes said.
Last summer, Perlmutter began a push to put activist investor Nelson Peltz on the Disney board. Once rebuffed, Perlmutter tried to put himself on the board, promising to contain Disney's spiraling costs, right-size its streaming expenses and sort out the company's succession planning.
Peltz withdrew his bid to joint the board in February. And this week, newly installed CEO Bob Iger revealed his own cost-cutting plan ... one that didn't involve Perlmutter, who joined the studio in 2009 amid its $4 billion purchase of his company.
On Monday, Iger announced a bloodletting of 7,000 Disney jobs, part of a promised $5.5 billion in cost cuts, which is now officially in progress.
These trims have already included Disney's "Next Generation Storytelling and Consumer Expriences" division, the "metaverse" unit started just last year by former CEO Bob Chapek.
