A year after returning to Disney as its CEO following the company's ousting of previous chief Bob Chapek, Bob Iger said he felt let down at the state of the House of Mouse under Chapek, Variety reported.

Iger spoke at the New York Times' DealBook Summit and said, “I was disappointed in what I was seeing in the transition period and while I was out.”

“I worked hard at distancing myself from it,” he added.

Battle of the Bobs: Iger vs. Chapek

Iger chose Chapek, who was the head of Disney's parks division before he became CEO from 2020 to 2022, to succeed him when his contract expired in 2020. He also stated that the company's succession planning for the CEO post “is robust right now.”

Iger said he will “definitely” step down as chief executive when his tenure is up at the end of 2026.

When he returned to Disney as its CEO, he broke up the Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution (DMED) division. The division was instituted by Chapek and was responsible for distributing Disney content and monetizing them.

Iger wrote in a memo to the employees that restructuring the division “puts more decision-making back in the hands of our creative teams and rationalizes costs.”

Early this year, he said at an investor conference that there was a “disconnect” at Disney over content spending and its monetization. Iger added that the company needed to be “more judicious” when it comes to investing in contents since production costs have risen.

He then put into a effect a cost-cutting plan, which included dissolving more than 8,000 positions this year as Disney pursued a reduction of $5.5 billion in spending.

During Disney's town hall on Nov. 28 at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York, Bob Iger stated that he knew there were several challenges facing his return.

“I won't say that it was easy, but I've never second guessed the decision to come back, and being back still feels great,” he concluded.