Darkbeer
10-30-2004, 10:47 PM
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6369655/site/newsweek/
QuikQuote: Eight years after Ovitz was banished from Disney following a short-lived stint as president, the former superagent finally answered the big question: what the heck happened? Defending himself in a lawsuit by Disney shareholders who objected to his $140 million severance package, Ovitz revealed a chamber of horrors. "They're not particularly sensitive to human beings," Ovitz said. He described a corporate culture of execs in adjoining offices phoning, rather than facing one another, and how he was continually upbraided for infractions like buying "Home Improvement" star Tim Allen a $1,200 Lichtenstein print to keep him from storming off in the midst of a $250 million syndication deal. Disney's legal chief was "walking behind me," Ovitz testified, "with a knife."
Worst of all, Michael Eisner, the friend of 25 years who lured him to the Magic Kingdom, had turned into Mr. Hyde, nixing Ovitz's multimillion-dollar plans for Disney deals with Yahoo, Janet Jackson and others, even telling board members that his No. 2 was a liar and a "psychopath." "I was cut out like a cancer," Ovitz testified. "I guess you could say I got pushed out the sixth-floor window." Out of a $2 million office suite, no less. (For the record, Ovitz says it was Eisner, not himself, who ordered up the pricey digs; Eisner will get his chance to respond when he's called to the stand in the next several days.)
QuikQuote: Eight years after Ovitz was banished from Disney following a short-lived stint as president, the former superagent finally answered the big question: what the heck happened? Defending himself in a lawsuit by Disney shareholders who objected to his $140 million severance package, Ovitz revealed a chamber of horrors. "They're not particularly sensitive to human beings," Ovitz said. He described a corporate culture of execs in adjoining offices phoning, rather than facing one another, and how he was continually upbraided for infractions like buying "Home Improvement" star Tim Allen a $1,200 Lichtenstein print to keep him from storming off in the midst of a $250 million syndication deal. Disney's legal chief was "walking behind me," Ovitz testified, "with a knife."
Worst of all, Michael Eisner, the friend of 25 years who lured him to the Magic Kingdom, had turned into Mr. Hyde, nixing Ovitz's multimillion-dollar plans for Disney deals with Yahoo, Janet Jackson and others, even telling board members that his No. 2 was a liar and a "psychopath." "I was cut out like a cancer," Ovitz testified. "I guess you could say I got pushed out the sixth-floor window." Out of a $2 million office suite, no less. (For the record, Ovitz says it was Eisner, not himself, who ordered up the pricey digs; Eisner will get his chance to respond when he's called to the stand in the next several days.)