Hollywood Week: Bob Iger, Tim Cook, Meta Layoffs, WBD Vote, QVC, Michael Jackson
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Saturday, 25 April 2026 11:06
- Written by Janet Walker
Appointed by founder Steve Jobs, Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has consistently outperformed revenue expectations driving Apple to an annual market value of more than $4Trillion, announced his retirement from daily operations assuming Apple's Executive Chairmanship.
Bob Iger Returns to Thrive
Bob Iger, the recently retired CEO of the Walt Disney Company, has returned to Thrive Capital, a venture investment firm leader by Joshua Kushner, reprising his previous role as an advisor to companies under Thrives tutelage.
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Iger, who recently passed the leadership torch to Josh D'Amaro, is expected to remain on the Walt Disney board throughout the remainder of the year. Retirement doesn't seem to be a good fit for the media executive, who spent two decades shepherding the Burbank behemoth, and this stint lasted barely one month, before Iger rejoined Thrive Capital.
During his first retirement, which came over the 2020 pandemic, he joined Thrive, briefly, as a venture partner, where he met Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, this resulted in a content creator, text-to-video deal when Iger returned to the mouse house in 2022. The deal eventually fell apart over Altman's decision to scrap Sora.
"He has invested in Genies, a crypto company that allows people to create digital avatars using blockchain technology. Iger has also invested his own cash in other consumer startups, including Canva, an Australian-based design company valued at $40 billion, and Gopuff, an instant-delivery service," The Wall Street Journal reported.
Apple CEO Tim Cook Names Successor
Apple CEO Tim Cook, 65, has announced John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple's next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026.
According the announcement from Apple, "The transition, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors, follows a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process. Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition. As executive chairman, Cook will assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world.
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Meta follows Disney, Sony as Tech Giant Begin Layoffs
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, has announced companywide layoffs, using the recent cost-cutting realignments from Disney and SONY as well as other tech companies as a catalyst, even as the tech giant continues its AI innovation.
"Meta's downsizing follows announcements of layoffs at other tech companies including Amazon.com, Snap, Block and Oracle. The companies have offered differing rationales for the reductions. Block was the only one to link the cuts directly to AI: "We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company," CEO Jack Dorsey wrote in a post on X," The Wall Street Journal reported.
Meta has also announced programs that would create a mirror trail of every employees keystrokes, mouse movements, and click locations to serve to train the next generation of employees. While this type of mirroring may not simply be for future training, for a tech company the size of Meta, an additional checks and balance system is necessary especially when access can always be bought to disrupt a single user through one employee with the proper credentials or access.
Employee are not embracing the new tracking software, as what is presented as an opportunity to train the next generation of employees, is seen by employees as a violation of privacy rights.
The shift to AI, which is causing alarms from Silicon Valley to Hollywood, is considered the main motivation behind Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to reduce staff by 10% or 8,000. Meta has invested heavily, upwards of $135 billion, in next generation AI software, in an effort to emerge from this research and development phases as a leader in the AI field, becoming AI- Native
AI-Native which describes systems, products, or organizations designed from the ground up with artificial intelligence as a core, foundational component, rather than an add-on. These technologies are AI-driven by design, focusing on automation, real-time data ingestion, and autonomous operation to improve efficiency.
"On Blind, a website where verified employees can anonymously post about and review their employers, a user compared the tracking to so-called bossware that some companies use to monitor worker productivity. "What next? Implement chips in our brains to read our minds? How is this totally unrelated to the upcoming layoffs?" the user wrote," the Wall Street Journal reported.
Meta is not the only tech giant determined to be AI native, others include Amazon, Oracle, as well as OpenAI and Anthropic.
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Warner Bros Shareholders Vote
The Warner Bros Discovery shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to accept the paramount Skydance offer. The $111 BN deal, which has yet to be formally approved by the Federal Communications Commission, merges two major studios, Warner Bros and Paramount-Skydance, along with several news organizations, including CBS, CNN, and TBS, and many networks, like TNT, HBO, Max (streaming), TNT Sports, Bleacher Report, Discovery Channel, TLC, HGTV, and the Food Network, to name a few.
QVC Files for Bankruptcy
The vast reach of the internet, and online shopping has taken its toll on television shopping networks. QVC, the original shopping network, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Texas U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The move is a restructuring aimed at reducing debt from $6.6 billion to $1.3 billion as the company faces declining cable viewership.
QVC, who also own the Home Shopping Network, which is under the umbrella of QVC and the protection of the Chapter 11 filing, may have seen the last days of its dominance in the home shopping space, as internet and online sales have increased exponentially in the last decade. In 2025, e-commerce captured more than 40% of the U.S. e-commerce space, spending upwards of $500bn across all e-commerce shopping platforms.
QVC, who still airs the celebrity driven, on-air product demonstrations, and includes easy pay systems, has continued to lose market share, ranking #235 overall, and the gradual transition to e-commerce sales, i.e. online, have slowed the growth of the granddaddy of home shopping.
Utilizing social, and tapping into the social networks of its base, while investing in a modernization tandem streaming platform, and increasing brand availability, could enhance the performance of the network, as the Chapter 11 filing indicated the company plans to emerge from bankruptcy proceeding in 90 with its debt reconciled.
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Michael Jackson Bio-Pic
Michael, the bio-pic of global superstar Michael Jackson hits box offices this weekend, and is projected to score a huge opening weekend, already pulling in 10+million from preview sales. While the bio-pic focuses on the superstar's rise from leader of the Motown sensation the Jackson 5 to solo artist, and his relationship with his abusive and domineering father, many critics are crawling out of the woodwork to remind people of his alleged perversions.
Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua, doesn't include any of of MJ's life or any of the major events past the 1988 sold out Wembley Stadium show in 1988. While the ending hints at the possibility of a second installment in the MJ story, the next chapter may become the more darker version of the Michael Jackson story that included the allegations of pedophilia, and inappropriate relationships with children, outside of the purview of their parents.
Either way, the bio-pic in box offices now shows Michael becoming more creative and more eccentric, and pushing boundaries in his videos, breaking barriers, and forging a path toward The King of Pop crown. The film introduces Michael, and the creative process, which is highlighted frequently, to a new generation. For fans the world over, Michael Jackson remains the icon, who created the evergreen Halloween anthem, "Thriller," along with so many others from the early days at Motown to "Man in the Mirror," "PYT," "Billie Jean."
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Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five award-winning screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," a non-fiction narrative, "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," and "Songs of Freedom: A Collection of Biblical Teachings," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
