Disney’s Top Television Exec Will Take Early Retirement

After barely more than a year on the job, Walt Disney Co.’s top television executive, Dennis F. Hightower, will retire June 1, the company announced Sunday.

Analysts say the move could signal a realignment is coming at the Burbank company as it moves to absorb Capital Cities/ABC Inc., which it completed its purchase of in February for $19 billion.

Dennis Hightower

The early retirement of Hightower, who said he intends to pursue academic interests, among other things, was not a shock to Hollywood or Wall Street. When he was tapped as president of the television and telecommunications division after the departure of Richard Frank in March 1995, many in the TV industry considered him an odd choice because of his lack of experience in the area.

Until then, Hightower had earned high marks for building Disney’s consumer products division in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but many felt he was slow in asserting his leadership once he was placed in charge of the TV unit.

“Putting him there was a stop-gap,” said Jessica Reif, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. “The only surprise is that they didn’t move him to another division and that he is leaving the company entirely.”

Hightower is one of the top-ranking African Americans in entertainment and was named one of the 40 most powerful black executives in America by Black Enterprise magazine in 1993. Another executive on that list is Richard Nanula, who became chief financial officer of Disney when Steve Bollenbach left in February, less than a year after joining the company, to become president and chief executive of Hilton Hotels Corp.

Hightower was unavailable for comment Sunday, as he was returning to Los Angeles after a week in Washington, where he attended the funeral of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown.

In a statement, however, Hightower said he had long intended to retire from corporate life at age 55 to pursue other interests. He said he would increase his involvements with Harvard Business School, Howard University and France’s European Institute of Business Administration, where he has been a guest lecturer for several years.

“I have had an incredible nine years at Disney,” he said. “[Chairman] Michael Eisner and [President] Michael Ovitz have been totally supportive of all my efforts. However, they have known for some time of my intention to leave corporate life at age 55.”

Disney said Hightower, who turns 55 this year, will continue as an international consultant for a year.

“While I am disappointed that Dennis has decided to leave, it does not come as a complete surprise,” Eisner said in the statement, in which he praised Hightower for increasing retail sales in his region seven-fold. “When I asked him to return to the United States from Paris last year, he made me aware of his plans to retire early.”

Disney said it will name a successor before June. Some in Hollywood are predicting that Hightower’s responsibilities over television and home video could go to studio chief Joe Roth, a move that would return the company to a corporate structure that had been in place earlier in the decade. Former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg had overseen movies, television and home video before leaving in 1994.

Some analysts speculated that Hightower’s departure could speed integration of Disney’s television production with Capital Cities. “Capital Cities has lots of management talent in its ranks, and with the end of the financial-syndication rules, there’s a possibility it would put TV production together under ABC,” said Harold Vogel, a media analyst at Cowan & Co. (Federal rules that prevented networks from profiting from shows they produce were phased out last year.)

Analysts say Disney is indeed moving quickly to put its imprint on Capital Cities. In addition to naming Euro Disney President Steve Burke to a top spot under Capital Cities President Robert Iger, last week it merged ESPN and ABC Sports in an effort to fortify its bargaining position in sports worldwide.

Reif said the retirement over the last two weeks of other ABC top brass, including executives in charge of the TV and radio station groups, is further testament to Disney’s plan to put its own people in place. Earlier this year, it recruited Geraldine Laybourne, the architect of Viacom’s Nickelodeon network, to spearhead its cable efforts.

At that time, the Disney Channel was moved from under Hightower’s supervision and given to Laybourne to oversee.

There has been talk that other functions now under Hightower, namely syndication and international television, might be moved to Capital Cities to consolidate all distribution at ABC and all production at Disney.

Disney’s telephone joint venture, called Americast and run by former ABC executive Stephen Weiswasser, also reports to Hightower, as does Disney Interactive.

Although Roth may be the most likely successor to Hightower, Hollywood sources speculated that Ovitz might use the opportunity to bring into the mix a high-powered television executive like Howard Stringer, the former CBS president who is now running Tele-TV, another telephone-video venture.

Ovitz is close to Stringer, having recruited him to Tele-TV when Ovitz was orchestrating the venture as head of Creative Artists Agency. Sources said Stringer would be a free agent if the two telephone ventures merge, which one source close to Tele-TV predicted could occur in the next few weeks.

Hightower, who earned an MBA from Harvard, spent eight years in Paris as president of Disney Consumer Products for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before joining Disney, Hightower was a partner in Russell Reynolds Associates Inc., an executive search firm, and served as a vice president at Mattel Inc.