he left when tom staggs got the nod to be coo.he senior management of disney have had 10 plus years to really look at tom staggs and his qualifications before naming him coo. back andoard to come say perhaps maybe you are not the right person is very surprising. >> disney likes to promote from within. michael eisner breaks that rule. would it be a big surprise if the successor to bob iger was an outside man or woman? i think the problem with disney is that bob iger ran a very good succession plan. over the last 10 years, identified too strong able executives and grooming them over a long period of time to succeed him. it worked well and bob iger was getting a lot of points for that. now the company is left with very few internal candidates. and of folks think they are going to look outside of the company for executives to come in. in a perfect world, they would've loved to take one of their internal candidates. >> twitter making a strategic push and to online programming . the social networking company will stream 10 thursday nigh

well, if you don't want somebody like tom staggs, 26-year veteran, who then? so that's a big question out there. >> who do you like? sandberg gets thrown around. she's on the board, knows the company. you heard peter's name thrown around here and there. i've heard chase kerry's name. >> chase kerry has been on the beach for a while. i'm sure he'd do a great job. certainly has the experience for it. there are a number of existing ceos today that are at perhaps smaller companies that are highly respected. >> is nbc universal a smaller company? >> no comment. >> that would be a lateral move, wouldn't it? >> certainly a lateral move. >> by i think he'd rather crush disney than go there. >> he does get brought up. >> he does? >> yeah, yeah. >> bite your tongue. he's going to stay. >> as i said, no comment. >> you hear that, sorkin? >> i have heard that name. >> before we just said it? >> yeah. >> were you scared? >> scared. of you. >> don't be scared of me. he's the guy. no, it would be lateral. i'm sure he loves it here too, right. and he's ceo of nbc universal. c

. -- tom staggs. the problem is convincing board members he was the right person to succeed. much. i guess it is a big shock at disney, mr. staggs has done better than good. smith is a little bit important, lee director, ex- starbucks guy. runs the university of washington. who's oren smith and what did he do? >> one of the lead directors. this is a shock to wall street, certainly. tom staggs has been groomed for this position for more than 10 years by this board and by bob iger. to get to the point where they had the run-up between tom and another senior executive. tom after a lot of due diligence. timeto turn around a short later and decide the perhaps he is not the right person to lead the company is really surprising to investors. tom: what's fascinating is the makeup up of the board. a guy named dorsey from twitter is there and ms. sandberg from facebook. the usual l.a. touchy-feely -- bring up the chart. it's a bear market for disney. a huge underperformer. what's the why? you have got to be kidding me. long-term it has been a great stock over the last nine months of ha

premarket trade. >>> another big corporate story to tell you about today, veteran disney executive tom staggsgiant. he had likely been seen as the successor to current ceo bob iger. reports saying staggs learned he was not guaranteed the top job and disney's board was going to broaden its search for a new chief executive. the stock fell about 1.8% in the afterhours on this news. it's a big deal. it raises a lot of questions about the success plans and problem at disney. barclays, who has an underweight to neutral on the stock, says it's going to be an overhang. it comes at a time where there's a lot of skepticism already around disney about the warning of lower profits when it comes to espn, which is the crown jewel, and the sort of loss of subscribers. this is just going to be another overhang, they say, on the stock, and it's going to complicate this for disney. >> indeed. clearly mr. staggs highly thought of. but they have two years to find the next heir apparent. >> potentially raising the prospect of an external candidate, which is i think usual for disney. staggs was there 26 years. >>

the board and senior management of disney have had 10 plus years to look at tom staggs and his qualificationsnaming him the coo. for the board to say maybe you are not the right person is surprising. >> disney likes to promote from within. would it be a big surprise if the successor to iger was an outside man or woman? >> the problem with disney is that bob iger ran a good succession plan. he identified two very strong able executives, grooming them over a long time to succeed him. that worked well and bob iger was getting points for that. it didn't work at the end. the company is now left with few internal candidates. they will look outside for an executive to come in. world, they would have loved to have taken one of their internal candidates. >> twitter making a push into online programming. the company will stream 10 thursday night football games to the public for free. who wins and who loses? >> the fans in the anna l win. -- and the nfl win. they are looking through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. this device looks like a small football field. they are taking chances, being ent

so in a changing business, you know, just making assumptions here, maybe tom staggs is not the personhase of the business. neil: for months now, actually years, he's been reportedly groomed for this. >> he has worked there 26 years. neil: theme park part of the business, right? wasn't film, studio part? >> some discussion, bob iger that he came out of, michael eisner, before him, came out of creative side of it that he has been, tom staggs, the chief operating officer since early last year and the reports are that the board looked at the record over the last year, hey, wait a minute. but don't you wonder, throwing it out there, bob iger, if there is a pointed successor who is just sitting there on the sidelines, he is hey, what if i don't want to leave in couple years. neil: you remember this happened with eisner? they had to kind of do the, all right, it is time to go. >> got to get ready here. >> called shoe on your butt out the door. neil: that is not unusual with this company. real quickly, three issues here. we're learning that now that pfizer is apparently leaning towards abando

they have had 10 + years to look at tom stagg said his qualifications before naming him coo.rd to say you are not the right person is very surprising. >> usually disney like to promote from within. michael eisner breaks that rule. was there a big surprise if the successor to igor was an outside manner women? -- man or woman? igor actually ran a very good signal selection plan -- good succession plan. grooming them over a long evening of time to succeed him. bob iger was getting a lot of points for that correctly so. it did not work out here in the end. the company is left with very few internal candidates. they will look outside of the company for new executives to come in. in the peripheral, they would have loved to take an internal candidate. >> twitter making a strategic push into online programming. the social networking company will stream 10 thursday night company games to the public for free. who wins and loses? >> the fans when. -- win. it is purely green. the nfl is looking through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. if you think about it, this device looks like

everybody loves tom staggs. inside the company people were devastated by this.n, a high level executive. i heard nothing bad about him. outside, wall street loves him. this is a tough act to replace. >> now we'll venture in speculation, is there a sense he wants to go out on a high? and that whether it's shanghai or espn or something else we don't know about, is keeping him from being able to do that? >> i don't think so iger could leave on a tremendous high right now. >> a rocky year to date. >> yes and no. >> things could get tougher, too. if you're him and you want to go out on top two years might be what you're looking for. >> things are about as good as they'll get. the main cloud is the problem with cable hanging over -- the big espn -- >> espn. >> that's not in the control of a disney ceo really. the unbundling phenomenon is affecting all cable companies. it will hit them hard. look at rest of their businesses. can you grow a double digit now? how many movies can they make? how many animated films can they make? ones they're doing have been hugely success

why does the board feel like creativity is needed for this job and tom staggs without it couldn't dohis job? >> there is a manager good at running a business, there is an innovateor who is it all the innovation, but then there is the in-know he vags leader. those are the people that i think they want to lead an organization like take. and that's clearly what iger has proven to p. he's approach to be a great nurturer of innovativetal lebt talent. you don't want a person to try to do it all themselves. look at what tim cook has done. you wouldn't call him the innovator per se but he's done a wonderful job there just like sheryl sandberg has done a wonderful job teaming with mark zuckerberg. so i think they have something in mind here. there may be more that we don't know, that we're not privy to the inside board room discussions. >> overall, bill, you're on some high profile boards. you never want the board to act with this air of conformity, right? i just wonder it may be disruptive now and the stock may be done on it but i wonder if you think there is a hidden value in a board that c

you're going to think it's self-serving, but "new york times," the james stewart piece on disney and tom staggsreally gets you into what happened between the board. an amazing sense of what took place. i'm adding both of those to the list. >> good. i like it. >> as for today, we have a huge show. becky quick is down in north carolina. we have simpson and bowles on the program. we're going to talk about politics, of course, but really the economy and where it's all going. then in the 8:00 hour, we have hank paulson on the show, who can really speak to so many things, china being one. we're going to talk about inversions being another and so many other topics. that's what we have on deck at the moment. >> andrew, great stuff. thank you very much. we look forward to "squawk box" in 11 minutes' time. >> andrew, you can join us every day for our must-read section. it doesn't have to be just this week. >> thank you. i appreciate it. >>> coming up, why our next guest says the current environment is still very supportive for stocks. tom lee, managing partner and head of research at fundstrat. >>> futur

i also hear that during tom staggs' ten-year history he's been approached by a number of private and public companies so i suspect he shouldn't have a hard time finding a new job. melissa? >> who is now the heir apparent? somebody along the lines of a john lassiter? >> no, i think that john lass remember it is more of a creative type and less likely to have the kind of management experience that disney would want for someone in this role. the reason why staggs was considered so perfect because he had the hands-on experience managing the parks and as cfo he also got to touch all of the different divisions so i think right now there's not an heir apparent. it will be very interesting to see who the studio -- who the whole company talks to both in terms of internal candidates as well as external candidates but it's worth noting that they do have two years to figure this out. i would suspect they are starting right now though to look both internally and externally who might have the right experience to manage such a massive company. >> all right. julia, thank you. julia boorstin in los a

tom staggs unexpectly stepped down.s to become ceo when robert retires in 2008. >>> there's an unusual new fire arm. it could go on sale later this year. it looks like a smartphone but it's actually a .380 caliber handgun. it's drawing attention. josh elliott of our network cbsn is here with the digital controversy. welcome and good morning. >> gayle, good morning. we should emphasize the gun is still in development. it hasn't stopped senator schumer from calling an investigation and keeping it off the marked. >> reporter: he's ceo of ideals. he says his gun's design which allows it to unphoto from a smartphone shape to a fully functional weapon would allow a person to carry it more freely. >> there are some who would take issue in a workplace to see a gun on you. it gives you the opportunity to avoid that. >> it's clearly being marketed for nefarious purposes. >> on monday charles schumer called on the department of justice and the bureau of alcoho explosives to whether this would violate federal law. >> there are two

they named tom staggs last year to be that successor and now a year later they have changed their mindtever reason. but this is a bad governance move. it leaves disney without a successor which means they either have to go deeper in their bench or they have to go outside. either of which will be very disruptive to disney. it's a bad move, it's disappointing that it had to happen. >> thank you very much. i think you're right about the hear of somebody -- some shareholder doesn't like him. you see iger maybe staying? >> i think he should stay. my goodness, he's been the best deal for the company in decades. plus he's young enough. he's powerful. some of the very best media hipds on the board. so they could pull from the board. >> all right, folk, back with more from iconic later today. >>> hello. i'm sue herera. here is your cnbc news update. it is the first casualty from the "panama papers." ice land's prime minister has resigned amid the controversy over the his wife's offshore holdings. he arrived in parliament earlier today where he was facing a no confidence vote. meantime, a spokes

certainly a surprise to hollywood insiders and disney i investors to learn that tom staggs is steps downmay 6th. by all accounts staggs was positioned to take over for iger when he was appointed ceo in february of last year. he had been cfo for a dozen years, was well liked by wall street, then he ran disney's parks and resorts operation for five years, overseeing the high-tech wrist bands, laying the ground work for the launch of disney shanghai. what happened? it had been a year since staggs took on the coo role and a course says disney's board was not ready to assure him that he would be iger's successor in two years. without that guarantee and with the board wanting to explore other options, my source says it didn't make sense for staggs to stay. while staggs had extensive financial and management expertise, his lack of creative experience raised questions of whether he had the creative chops to keep the media conglomerate innovating. while staggs started off in strategic planning, by contrast, bob iger ran abc. disney says the board of directors will broaden the scope of its success

think it is about running a tv network that is inherently more creative than coming from where tom staggsom? >> i think he hasn't had that experience, there's nothing to say that he couldn't do a very good job doing that but 12 years as the cfo. that's a crushing job at disney. it was all during all of this activity. he certainly knows the business in and out because all of these acquisitions took place when he was the cfo. >> not to say he didn't have an opportunity to be named to run one of the more creative businesses over the years. >> he's had the parks, pretty creative. he's been involved with the shanghai project. signed his name on the towers along with iger. it's misty fiing to me. and he's 26 years with the company. if you thought that he wasn't creative, that could have been discovered 26 years ago. >> as you remember when bob iger came in there he was not necessarily considered somebody who kind of had the whole package. >> that's true. >> good soldier and good operator but then of course he's obviously made these brilliant strategic moves buying these intellectual property bu

should they have had that deep enough bench where they say, it is beyond tom staggs this guy, this guythis guy, and they'll all lined up and ready to go. >> the best companies do, i don't want to say negligent, because i don't want to criticize, but the best companies develop two to three people, try them on in different roles and get the feeling for what the challenge or the superiority is going to be. and then make a decision. i've been there a bunch of times. it is the right thing to do, work as a partnership, multiple people on the bench, and then make a decision about a year out. >> and, jeff, i want to be clear, i'm not saying disney needs to disparage the guy at all. if your short stop is batting 167 and striking out twice a game, you know he'll go on the bench, disney seems look a company that with the exception of, you know, they got to adjust espn a little bit is firing on all cylinders, frozen was the biggest hit in the world. everything seemed to be going well. then suddenly the number two is just -- he's benched. don't we need to know a little more why, it doesn't have to

no reason being given for the departure of cheap operating officer tom staggs.ad problems convincing some disney board members he was the right person to succeed bob iger. tesla grabs the spotlight for taking deposits on 276,000 of it's new model. but when it came to delivering vehicles, the company has come up short, selling less than 15,000 cars in the first quarter. tesla blames apart shortage. now.han: to frankfurt tensions between the imf and the greek government have been growing. today, christine lagarde indicated a growing level of flexibility with greece. in an interview with francine lacqua, lagarde said they want to help the company regain -- the country regain stability. madame lagarde: we continue to be focused on addressing the greek situation by negotiating in good faith with a two fold objective. one is to restore the financial stability of the country and to give it debt sustainability. number two, to equip that economy with the competitiveness, the productivity, the structural reforms that are needed for it to be independent. the objectives hav

tom as the next ceo. we are not getting a clear reason at this point but it means they have to start over from scratch. it's a long process that takes staggs as number two. some of the other candidates have departed. they will have to probably look outside. cory: interesting times that disney with that breaking news. we are lucky to have you come in for bloomberg news. thank you very much. ♪ cory: online lenders are creating tens of billions of dollars of loans. a new company helps us understand the data from those loans. we have a roundtable, tell us what this means. >> imagine you are and investor in the peer-to-peer marketplace that is growing at an unprecedented pace. what you're really want is a view on the risk. there have been a bunch of red flags in the past few months ranging from the specific. it might potentially downgrade a few bonds. there has in a broad risk off environment this year. all of this is piling up in what investors are looking for is a clear view on the risk. what does it take to really invest in this online lending marketplace, what data do i need to be able to do that, while avoiding as much of the risk as i can

tom srendenschek is in houston. what in the record happened here? >> reporter: well, there's fans leaving and i think oklahoma left about 10 minutes into the first half as you said simply dominant, simply stagge said all week it is not a loose team eighths very confident team. not a cocky cats fans are everywhere. not a cocky team. very confident team. i asked josh hart and chris jenkins after the game two of the six cats that scored in double figures what it is truly like to stifle a team one end defensively and score at will at the other? >> it's a great feeling. it's a great feeling. something i'm hoping we can have on monday. but, um, just being so locked in. taking them out of rhythm defensively they coming down getting, you know, a good shot offensively and put -- you know, pogue after possession after possession. it's a great feeling. it's something we have to keep building on. >> we don't really focus on the other steam. we stay dialed into each other and keeping each other the course. telling each other, you know, what we preach every day villanova basketball for four minutes until the last seconds tick. >> reporter: now they are only 40 minutes away from national championship monday

tom stags, currently the chief operating officer will leave walt disney company and current position effective may 6th and remain employed as special adviser through the fiscal year. this is really surprising because staggsreplace bob iger when his term expires in about two years. he's been a colleague of mr. iger's for more than 20 years and chief financial officer before becoming coo and led the head of disney parks and resorts. the fact he had wide ranging experience and cfo running parks and resorts, everyone thought he would be well positioned to become coo upon his team ending. the company saying in a statement with two years left, disney's board of directors will broaden the scope of its succession planning process to identify and evaluate a robust slate of candidates for consideration. in that comment the company acknowledging this assumption that staggs would be the likely replacement for iger. there are two years to go. it will be interesting to see which big names rise at disney and who is appointed to replace staggs as coo. back over to you. >> thank you. i have a quick question for you because the press release says what julia mentioned two years left before iger steps down and board will ha

the colleague continues, tom stagg loved being a federal judge. we will all miss him. judge stagg assumed senior stau on the court in 1992 but didn't retire. he maintained a full caseload serving on federal circuit court of appeals stau. he loved being a judge but his love for the job came second. judge stagg married mary o'brien and she survives as do their two children julie and margaret mary. thank you and i yield back. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 3636, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 55, h.r. 636, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to permanently extend -- mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the reading