Buena Vista Television president Bob Jacquemin is out.
The Walt Disney Studios confirmed Sunday that Jacquemin, who has headed the company's syndication wing for the past nine years, will resign effective Feb. 2 .
Jacquemin will not attend this week's National Assn. of Television Program Executives confab. The sales staff learned of his resignation Sunday during a sales meeting here to map out convention strategy.
There was no immediate word on a replacement, but sources close to the company said Disney could promote one of Jacquemin's lieutenants, go outside the company (Paramount syndie exec Joel Berman has been mentioned as a possible candidate) or leave the position unfilled.
Disney Studios exec VP Randy Reiss has basically been runningthe studio's syndie operation for the past few years, which sources close to the company said resulted in friction that contributed to Jacquemin's departure.
Jacquemin had been relegated to the role of head of sales -- an identical position to the one he found himself in a decade ago when he headed syndication for Paramount, reporting to Reiss.
Unhappy at Par, sources said Jacquemin resigned and went to Disney, where he initially reported directly to studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg.
That changed when Rich Frank jumped from Par to Disney as president of the studio. Jacquemin, who had worked for Frank and Reiss at Par, found himself reporting to Frank once again. And when Reiss came to Disney and stopped overseeing network TV, Jacquemin was back reporting to him.
According to sources, Jacquemin waited to leave until he received a hefty year-end bonus. He engineered a sales marketing plan for the off-net sitcom "Home Improvement" that is ex-pected to fetch BVTV $ 350 million in cash license fees and another $ 100 million in barter for just the first 125 episodes.
Reached at home Sunday, Jacquemin would say only the timing of his exit "is right" and that he is leaving "on the best of terms" with the studio. He praised BVTV, saying it had "the best group of people I've ever worked with."
Rumors had circulated earlier this month that Jacquemin would stay with Disney through NATPE, but he said those plans didn't pan out.
Jacquemin said he expects to surface in a few months in a new TV-related venture.
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