Former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter claims Walt Disney Co. DIS dismissed him last week because he pushed the company too hard to slash costs and clashed with creative executives whom Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger wants to empower, a report says. “I have no doubt that my termination was based on fundamental differences in business between my thinking and Disney leadership, because I care about return on investment,” Perlmutter told The Wall Street Journal in a rare interview. Perlmutter, who owns approximately 30 million shares of Disney worth about $3 billion, said he tried for years to convince Disney to spend less on its Marvel Studios superhero movies, which he believes are too long and too expensive to produce.
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