LOS ANGELES - The leaders of the effort to oust Michael Eisner as chief executive of the Walt Disney Co. have called on the company's board to reject Eisner's offer to retire in 2006 as well his pick of president Robert Iger as his successor.
Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold said Monday that they will propose an alternate slate of directors if Disney's board does not launch an immediate search for a new CEO and announce that Eisner will step down from the board at the conclusion of the search.
The two former board members said a new chief executive should be in place before Disney's next shareholder meeting in early 2005.
Eisner said Friday that he intends to retire as CEO when his contract expires in September 2006. He did not say whether he would seek to remain on Disney's board.
On Monday, Roy Disney and Gold called Eisner's pledge "mere window dressing" and said, "There is no acceptable solution that includes Mr. Eisner's continued leadership at Disney for the next two years - let alone any longer than that."
A Disney company spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The two dissidents sent a letter to Disney's nonmanagement directors, chastising them for taking little action since 45 percent of shareholders withheld their support for Eisner's re-election to the board at March's shareholders' meeting.
The board stripped Eisner of his board chairmanship after the meeting, though it expressed confidence in his management skills.
The dissidents also rejected any scenario that would include Eisner remaining on the board - or possibly becoming chairman - in 2006, with Iger as CEO.
"We ask you to immediately engage an independent executive recruiting firm to conduct a worldwide search for a strong visionary leader capable of guiding this company as it faces the challenges ahead," Roy Disney and Gold wrote.
Disney shares rose 16 cents to close at $23.32 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Also ...
SHAREHOLDER SUIT: Former Walt Disney Co. president Michael Ovitz must face investors' claims that he should return $140-million in severance because it amounted to a waste of company assets, a judge ruled.
Delaware Chancery Court Judge William B. Chandler III found on Friday that Disney shareholders could proceed with allegations that Ovitz didn't deserve the payments and stock options he received when he left after 15 months on the job. Ovitz stepped down in December 1996 as second in command to chief executive Michael Eisner.
The judge ruled in Ovitz's favor on separate claims that he violated legal duties to the No.2 U.S. media company by negotiating a favorable employment agreement before joining the company.
-- Information from Bloomberg News Service was used in this report.
