james-pitaro
Latest
Disney Interactive lays off 80 more
Disney Interactive has reportedly let another 80 or so employees go, adding to the more than 250 people that were let go earlier this year. Co-presidents James Pitaro and John Pleasants are overseeing the cuts, trying to trim down a division that once had more than 4,000 employees by seven percent or so. Last month, Pleasants, who used to run social game company Playdom, told investors that he wanted to cut the operating costs of the division by 25 percent, and it's likely these layoffs are part of that plan. Officially, Disney called the layoffs "targeted," and said they were "part of setting a strategic direction for future success in digital media." Hopefully this is the last round of exits we'll see from the shrinking House of Interactive Mouse.
Disney Interactive gets two new presidents
Their names were John Pleasants and James Pitaro -- two hard-nosed CEOs from different sides of the track -- even though everybody who knew anything called them Jack and Jim. Jack grew up on the mean streets of EA until he gave 'em the clean sneak and shacked up with Playdom. Man, the team there was so green Kermit woulda tossed them a pity nickel, but he worked 'em into a lean crew the Mouse House just couldn't resist. Pitaro, now he used to real choir boy, running sports over at Yahoo!. That was until someone from the media division looked at him the wrong way and he cleaned house over there so bad he was the only one left standing to see how spic 'n' span it was. Now when the two of them took over as co-presidents of Disney Interactive way back at the beginning of October 2010, the two of them really started getting gashouse. Heck, there wasn't a fakealoo artist or roundheel left in that clip joint after Jack (who ran the games) and Jim (the online guy) were finished tuning them up. Yep, they was about the best damn buttons I ever seen ... best I ever seen.
