Yahoo Finance Disney Entertainment CTO to depart, join Penn Entertainment
Aaron LeBerge, the chief technology officer of Disney Entertainment and ESPN, is leaving the company to join Penn Entertainment (PENN). In a memo, LeBerge described the move as a "personal decision driven by the needs of my family."
It comes as Disney (DIS) faces questions about who will succeed Bob Iger as CEO when his contract is up.
In the video above, Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal and Josh Lipton discuss what's next for Disney.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination.
This post was written by Stephanie Mikulich.
Video transcript
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Moving on to our third trending ticker today, that is Disney. Aaron LeBerge, he's president and chief technology officer of Disney Entertainment and ESPN. But he will be stepping down from his position in June after more than 20 years at the company. He'll be joining sports betting operator Penn Entertainment as its chief technology officer where he will continue to work with Disney on ESPN BET which is its licensed online Sportsbook. So he's leaving for personal reasons. He's still going to be in the Disney family or extended family, I should say, with Penn.
But he was a key figure in leading a lot of the streaming initiatives. We had the integration between Disney, FOX, and Hulu, also bringing ads to Disney Plus. So he's been a key leader there and he's got another longtime veteran of Disney who we've now seen exit the company. Some other veterans include Kevin Mayer, Tom Staggs, of course Bob Chapek who was ousted from that CEO position, Bob Iger taking over there. But just interesting to see some of the executive moves at Disney right now.
JOSH LIPTON: Any movement on the succession story at Disney? Do we have any insight?
ALEXANDRA CANAL: I've been speaking to a few experts and analysts, they don't anticipate anything until either the end of this year or next year when it comes to--
JOSH LIPTON: Next year [? even, ?] yeah.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: --any idea of where we could potentially be heading Bob Iger's contract expires at the end of 2026. So we have a bit of time and we do know that the Disney board is very committed to finding a viable successor. That was a big sticking point when we thought-- when we think about the proxy battles, Nelson Fox.
JOSH LIPTON: Do you ever hear-- when you talk to, do you ever hear anyone float names to you?
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah.
JOSH LIPTON: Always who they're looking for the kinds of.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: I think the internal heads at Disney, so Alan Bergman, Dana Walden, Josh D'Amaro, Jimmy Pitaro, those are the names that are being floated. And you would have to think that they're all going through a rigorous process right now. And I think more likely than not, it's going to be someone internal.
