Saturday, May 12, 2012

Whole Lotta Options

Robert Iger is cashing in a few chips shares of stock:

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger sold $81.6 million in stock after the record-setting box-office performance of “Marvel’s The Avengers” powered the shares to new highs.

The sale of 1.8 million shares took place on May 10 at an average price of $45.36, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. Disney closed at a record on May 9, after the company outlined plans for an “Avengers” sequel on its second-quarter earnings call, and set subsequent marks on May 10 and May 11. ...

Years ago, long before Mr. Iger's time, the Disney animation staff regularly got stock options from the company. (As I've noted here before, Woolfgang Reitherman once told me: "We didn't get rich from the salaries the company paid. We got rich from the stock.")

This practice was ended by Michael Eisner in the middle 1980s; thereafter, some animation employees got generous stock options, while others received none.

Good for Mr. Iger that Diz Co. has showered him with abundant stock options. It would be even better if employees on lower rungs of the corporate ladder were accorded similar treatment.

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