The price was beaten down, he said, because of competition from Intel, a series of manufacturing problems and questions about management succession.

The first management succession was invariably the most painful.

That usually leads to management succession and accountability problems.

On top of that, however, analysts said there was a swelling problem over management succession in the merged company.

Mr. Anderson, who is 62 years old, said the appointments were part of plan for management succession at the company.

The departure will renew questions about Disney's ability to retain management and spur further speculation as to senior management succession.

Because many companies have scaled back their operations, the chairmen indicated they would put more stress on management succession.

Secondly, it inherently gives us the liquidity to evolve management succession.

But the fact that she is not slated for operating responsibility leaves the question of management succession up in the air.

"Lots of people enjoy the sport of speculating about management succession at Ford," he said.