Disney settled his differences with YouTube about leaving Justin Connollya senior executive who now oversees YouTube's media and sports operations.
Connolly left Disney in May after 25 years with the company. Disney immediately filed a lawsuit YouTube for poaching him and sued Connolly for breach of contract. According to the lawsuit, Connolly was just five months into a new three-year contract as president of platform distribution.
On Tuesday, Disney's lawyers filed a notice of settlement that did not disclose any details of the settlement.
Connolly was paid $6 million in 2024, making him one of Disney's highest-paid executives. He oversaw a team of 300 people responsible for content distribution deals with cable and satellite providers, streaming services and YouTube TV. He reported to Jimmy Pitaro, Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, who in turn reported to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Disney said Connolly's departure came at a critical time as the company began negotiations over a billion-dollar license renewal with YouTube – with Connolly as the lead negotiator. Disney argued that Connolly had effectively switched sides and would provide a wealth of inside information about Disney's strategy in these negotiations.
(These negotiations appear to be at an impasse for now. Last week, Disney warned customers that its programming could be immediately removed from YouTube TV if a deal is not reached.)
Disney also fears that as YouTube enters into direct competition with ESPN for sports rights, Connolly will have inside information about ESPN's solvency, which will put Disney at a competitive disadvantage.
Connolly said Iger and other executives personally warned him that Disney would try to stop him from moving to YouTube.
YouTube argued in court that Connolly would be excluded from all negotiations with Disney and would be required to honor his confidentiality obligations to Disney. YouTube lawyers also proposed that Disney was simply seeking to use its claims to Connolly's services as a chip in license renewal negotiations – seeking to speed up those negotiations by offering to release Connolly once negotiations were completed.
YouTube also argued that Connolly's contract was in fact at-will rather than a fixed-term agreement, since Disney retained the right to terminate it at any time without necessarily paying the remainder of his deal until release.
In June, Judge James Chalfant rejected Disney petition to ban Connolly from working on YouTube. The judge found that Disney failed to demonstrate the requisite emergency and failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits.
Connolly told the court he was grateful for the opportunities he received at Disney and was “saddened, although not entirely surprised, that Disney filed a lawsuit against me.”
“I want nothing more than to get my dream job at YouTube,” he said. “And I hope that in time Disney will overcome the disappointment of my departure and that I can restore my relationships with many of my Disney colleagues.”
