Disney CEO Deserves Pink Slip, Not a Bonus

This guy just doesn’t get it (“Disney’s Eisner Got Bonus of $5 Million,” Jan. 29).

As a long-suffering Disney stockholder, I can’t tell you how uplifting it was to see that CEO Michael Eisner got a whopping $5-million bonus for 2002.

And what did he do to earn that bonus? He has taken a once-thriving company and has driven it into the ground.

When I bought it, I was told that I would be able to put my kid through college with it. Ha.

Disney has priced the average family out of its theme parks, made questionable entertainment decisions and has overextended its boundaries into sports, news and other ventures. All losing money.

I pray that when his current contract runs out in 2006, the stockholders will finally say “enough,” and give this cretin the heave-ho he so richly deserves.

Russell Rose

Yorba Linda

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Amazing. Disney’s stock is down, its credit rating is downgraded and operating income is off by a mere $2.8 gillion, ABC is an entertainment joke, and Eisner gets a bonus and Chief Operating Officer Robert Iger a raise and additional incentives.

The compensation committee believed Eisner should be rewarded for leading “in a difficult economic environment that challenged all of the company’s major businesses.” How do you motivate these execs if the rewards are so substantial when they fail and astronomical when they hit a home run?

Many Disney shareholders have seen their investments decline substantially, although executive compensation and other incentives seem to be blind to performance and the economy.

Perhaps Mr. Eisner needs to consider a “payback” if and when Disney fails to meet its lofty goal of 25% to 35% growth for 2003?

Jim Koontz

Diamond Bar