A nearly three-decade association with Disney comes to an end as Bob Chapek, the Disney Veteran, was ousted in 2022 as the media company’s CEO. Now, he has been appointed to the board of directors of the medical tech firm Masimo.
This move can seem to be a dramatic continuation of the series of events involving Masimo and Apple. Masimo has been in a tech patent dispute with Apple over a blood oxygen tool featured in Apple’s latest line of smart watches. Apple has pulled the tech off of the current edition of watches off the market since the International Trade Commission ruled that this feature infringed on Masimo’s patent. Many media outlets reported on Monday that the blood oxygen feature has been taken off of the watches in subsequent editions.
As the world began to bend to the laws of COVID in 2020, Chapek took over as CEO of Disney since February 2020, taking the lead from Bob Iger. While he was able to mitigate the COVID crisis and run the show, he encountered friction between 2021 and 2022. Iger ended up replacing Chapek in November 2022.
Chapek has kept a fairly low profile since the turmoil around his exit from Disney. “I am thrilled to join the Masimo board,” the exec said in a press release. “I look forward to helping advance the company’s growth by leveraging their core technologies in the consumer and consumer health spaces.”
Joe Kiani, Chairman and CEO of Masimo, said, “We are honored to have Bob join the board. As we execute our hospital to home strategy, we expect to benefit greatly from Bob’s role on our board.”
It is interesting to note how these layovers between Disney and Masimo might affect the Apple v Masimo patent issue as well.
