The Walt Disney Company announced on Sunday that its president, Robert A. Iger, who began his career as a studio supervisor 30 years ago at ABC, will succeed Michael D. Eisner as chief executive, ending Eisner’s storied but tumultuous two-decade reign a year earlier than expected. Iger, 54, has tirelessly — and sometimes uncomfortably — worked in Eisner’s shadow in the five years he worked as Disney’s second in command. Since he became president of Disney, Iger defended Eisner, 63, and the management team, while at the same time seeking to differentiate himself from his boss, who had become a lightning rod for grievances about Disney, a media giant with assets valued at $54 billion, including ABC, theme parks and movie studios.The board had not planned to make an announcement this soon, according to several people apprised of its discussions over the weekend. But when Meg Whitman, the chief executive of eBay and a former Disney executive, withdrew from consideration, the board called a meeting on Saturday night. Ultimately, the board agreed that Iger, whose contract ends in September, would get the job, these people said. How long Eisner would stay was one of the main issues he and the board grappled with, the people close to the board said. In the end, Eisner agreed it was time to go. ‘‘I’m ready to move on,’’ he said in a letter to the board on Sunday. Iger’s appointment will be effective in September. The announcement was the culmination of a shareholder revolt last year, which Eisner had sought to mollify by announcing that that he would not ask to remain as chief executive once his contract expired in September 2006. In what was widely seen as a public rebuke of Eisner’s management style at the time, 45 per cent of the shares cast in the 2004 board election were withheld from him. In the letter to the board, Eisner said he would not seek to be named chairman. Moreover, he said he would not ask to remain on the board, something many in Hollywood believed he hoped to do if Iger was named chief executive.The transition will begin immediately, and Eisner and Iger will share the CEO’s duties for the next six months for a smooth transition, Disney said.Iger had the right combination of company knowledge, candour and experience dealing with others ‘‘to move this company to another level,’’ Disney Board Chairman George J. Mitchell said. — NYT
