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Ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek advises startups, open to PE fund: Bloomberg

Four years after Bob Chapek was unceremoniously fired as chief executive officer of Walt Disney DIS, he’s reportedly building a new career in private equity.

Chapek, 67, is now advising closely held businesses like online agent startup NinjaTech AI and real estate firm Foundry Commercial, has been nominated for a board seat at Vail Resorts MTN by an activist shareholder, and is open to raising a private equity fund to acquire new companies, he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“I love private equity because it’s really about the business, there’s very little politics in it because it’s wholly owned or majority owned by one company, there’s no politics of managing big boards and things like that,” Chapek said.

His description of the private equity industry is a far cry from the twists and turns that led to his downfall at Disney and the dramatic return of Bob Iger, who Chapek blames for his ouster in his memoir Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth, which will be published on Tuesday, according to the report.

Chapek said that he’s spoken to people in business and government close to Iger who allege that he was aware of the looming Covid-19 crisis as early as November 2019, which may have hastened his decision to step down as CEO after 15 years.

Disney’s DIS share price reached a record high under Chapek but fell sharply after the company disclosed disappointing earnings and larger-than-expected losses in the streaming division.

The unit that includes the Disney+ streaming platform eventually turned a profit in the exact quarter that Disney had forecast it would when Chapek was running the company, he said in the interview, as per the report.

“I think it’s interesting with all the bluster of how much was suggested was wrong during my reign, that now here we are four years later, and the stock price is largely unchanged while the rest of the market has gone crazy,” Chapek said. “I think that says a lot, and our shareholders deserve a growth vehicle.”

Chapek has divested almost all his Disney stock. The company’s shares are up 15.6% since he left, compared with a 95% gain in the S&P 500 Index. DisclaimerContent provided by Seeking Alpha is intended for information purposes only, and that Seeking Alpha does not offer any personalist investment advice and is not a licensed securities dealer, broker, US investment adviser or investment bank.