Ovitz’s ‘Odd’ Management Style Described
Michael Ovitz was a poor fit at Walt Disney Co. and alienated colleagues during his brief tenure as company president in 1995 and 1996, Disney’s former chief financial officer testified Monday.
Stephen Bollenbach, a former Disney director who is now chief executive of Hilton Hotels, said Ovitz’s management style was “odd as opposed to useful.”
One example Bollenbach provided was Ovitz’s habit of stationing himself at the side of Chief Executive Michael Eisner in public settings and attempting to “kidnap” Eisner by whispering in his ear in front of other executives. Bollenbach said he twice warned Eisner he should put a stop to it: “I said, ‘Gee, you’ve got to stop that. You look like a fool with that going on.’ ”
Bollenbach also told of another incident at a January 1996 corporate retreat in Florida that didn’t go over well with colleagues. Ovitz had 40 company executives sit in a circle and asked them, “Who’s the most important person in history?” Bollenbach testified.
“Jesus got a lot of votes,” he said. “Eisner actually got a couple votes.”
Bollenbach said that by that meeting he had concluded it would be difficult for Ovitz to be Eisner’s No. 2.
Disney directors are accused in the Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit of failing to properly oversee Ovitz’s hiring in 1995 and his firing a little more than one year later. Ovitz left with a cash-and-stock package that plaintiffs’ lawyers value at more than $140 million.
In earlier testimony, Ovitz said that he clashed with members of Eisner’s inner circle, including Bollenbach, whom Ovitz said refused to report to him. Ovitz blamed Eisner for failing to support his efforts to mesh into the company.
Bollenbach told Chancery Court Judge William B. Chandler III that he never saw Ovitz do anything at Disney that would have justified firing him for cause and denying him the severance. Bollenbach left the company in February 1996, six months after Ovitz’s much-ballyhooed hiring was announced.
The former CFO said most of Ovitz’s problems at Disney stemmed from his unorthodox approach to learning about the company and its employees.
Ovitz avoided meetings with Bollenbach designed to give him an overview of the financial operations of the company’s different businesses, preferring to ask questions of individual executives, the former CFO said.
Under cross-examination by a lawyer for Disney shareholders, Bollenbach said he didn’t leave the entertainment firm because Ovitz was named company president instead of him, but to take the Hilton job.
Disney’s current chairman, former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, is expected to testify today. Then the court is expected to adjourn until Monday.
