Kevin Mayer is facing a very public test as he prepares to launch Disney's new streaming service
On the Walt Disney Co. DIS 3.76% campus, longtime executive Kevin Mayer has a nickname: Buzz Lightyear.
As Disney’s longtime deals maven, Mr. Mayer has been an important architect of the company’s recent success. He helped orchestrate the four acquisitions that expanded Disney into its modern incarnation as an industry colossus: Pixar Entertainment, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm Ltd. and 21st Century Fox. The multiplayer online game geared toward kids missed early performance targets and was shut down in 2017.
‘If I’m going to make a bet on the future, it’s short-form video and younger audiences,’ Mr. Mayer said. Maker has since floundered.The deal—Mr. Mayer’s biggest—boosted Disney’s library for its streaming effort. The companies are still integrating.Marvel$700 millionMr. Mayer hashed out the details of Marvel’s value, at one point estimating the box-office returns of upcoming movies.
Less than four years after Disney acquired the social gaming company, it closed most of its games and was finished by 2016.Acquisition‡‘If I’m going to make a bet on the future, it’s short-form video and younger audiences,’ Mr. Mayer said. Maker has since floundered.The company became Disney Streaming Services and is building Disney+ infrastructure. Mr. Mayer oversees both.The deal—Mr. Mayer’s biggest—boosted Disney’s library for its streaming effort. The companies are still integrating.
“He has a relentless pursuit of excellence which can be stressful and exhausting at times,” said Nick van Dyk, a former Disney executive who worked for Mr. Mayer for many years. “It is also the way his people get their best work done. And he generally uses that style to get results from a particular type of person—he has more managerial versatility than people give him credit for.”
The division, founded in the late 1980s to stress-test the business plans of Disney divisions, became Mr. Mayer’s home at Disney. It was staffed by a small number of recent business-school graduates who were given carte blanche to weigh in on business plans from divisions across the company. Colleagues described it as a mini-McKinsey—a place where future executives like eBay Inc. CEO Meg Whitman cut their teeth.
Mr. Mayer was hired to broaden the Playboy website’s audience and turn it into a destination for more than just pictures of naked women. The partnership didn’t last. Pixar Entertainment came first—a $7.4 billion deal for the studio behind “Toy Story.” Mr. Iger won over Pixar founder Steve Jobs, and Mr. Mayer befriended Ed Catmull, a company executive who specialized in the technical details as president of Pixar and co-head of Walt Disney Animation Studios after the sale.
“That is probably the best acquisition by any traditional media company ever,” said Marty Yudkovitz, who worked alongside Mr. Mayer in the strategic planning unit for years. “It was not at all sexy. But it was the critical factor of making this whole over-the-top plan work.”
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