Bob Iger, Disney president and CEO, is joining the Board of Directors at Apple.

The company today announced his appointment to the board as well as the company's audit committee. At the same time, long-time board member Arthur Levinson (co-founder of Genentech) has been named chairman.

“Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “His strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple.”

Iger hasn't been formally associated with Apple before, but he certainly has been up to speed on the company's operations. Iger and Steve Jobs served together at Disney, following the Mouse House's acquisition of Pixar in 2006. It was Iger, in fact, who managed to mend the rift between the companies, following a showdown between Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. 

Steve Jobs will remain on the board at Disney.

Investors voted Wednesday to re-elect the CEO of Apple (and one-time owner of Pixar), despite proxy advisors who lobbied against the action, citing continuing concerns about Jobs' overall health.

Bloomberg reports 74 percent of the investors voted to keep Jobs on the board, a not completely surprising move, since he is the company's largest individual shareholder with a 7 percent ownership stake in the Mouse house.

Two shareholder groups and the AFL-CIO raised questions about Jobs' re-election bid, citing his regular absence from board meetings. One group noted his “recent leave of absence from his primary employer, raises questions about his ability to fulfill his responsibilities as a director.”

Jobs has been on medical leave from Apple since Jan 17 – the third time he has taken such a leave in seven years. However, he has been seen regularly on the Apple campus and led the public unveiling of the iPad 2 earlier this month, surprising some attendees.

Join us at 10 am PST for a live chat with "Battle: Los Angeles" vfx supervisor Everett Burrell.

As Disney was busy laying off a substantial portion of its games division this week, it was also doing some hiring.

The Mouse House has lured away Adam Sussman, vice president of Electronic Arts’ mobile division. Sussman will become Senior VP of publishing for Disney Games – further indicating the company’s plan to focus almost entirely on mobile and social titles moving forward.

Sussman is credited with making EA a powerhouse in Apple’s App Store, along with other platforms. That division was responsible for over $200 million in revenue, according to Sussman’s LinkedIn profile.

"Adam’s ability to grow businesses geographically as well as his talent for working across platforms and distribution channels make him an ideal leader in our games division," said Mr. Pleasants. “His passion for games and his understanding of all facets of the business will make him a key part of our success.”

Sussman’s a Disney vet. From 1999-2005, he worked at the company in a number or roles, including overseeing mergers and acquisitions. He also served as general manager at Take-Two Interactive Software.

He comes into a company that’s in the midst of an ugly transition. Over 200 people were laid off this week from Disney’s Interactive Media Group – and a second round of layoffs is said to be looming.

Disney is swinging the ax at Disney Interactive Studios, cutting hundreds of positions, sources have told Variety.

Disney declined to give a number of people affected, but speaking off the record, people who were affected by the move said it could be as much as half of Disney Interactive Studios. Several vice presidents and directors were among those cut. (Update: Further research by Variety has found the actual number of employees cut to be closer to 35-40 percent of the unit.) 

"“As part of setting a strategic direction for future success in the digital media space, the Disney Interactive Media Group yesterday began a restructuring process," the company said in a statement. 

More than 700 people work at Disney Interactive Studios, but many have been waiting for what they saw as inevitable cuts after upper management changes were made late last year after the June 2010 acquisition of social game maker Playdom.

First out was Disney Interactive Media Group head Steve Wadsworth, who left abruptly in September. The Mouse quickly replaced him with Yahoo! vet Jimmy Pitaro and John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom, an online game company that Disney acquired for $763 million in late July.

In November, that shift continued as Graham Hopper, who had guided Disney’s gaming division for the past eight years and had built the company into a viable force among game makers, announced his departure.

During holiday 2010, the company had two major releases: “Tron: Evolution,” which was a flop and “Epic Mickey,” its biggest retail release in years – and a video game re-branding, of sorts, for the company’s most famous character.

“Epic Mickey” sold 1.3 million units in December – a respectable number and one that Disney said made it the fastest-selling game in the company’s history. The figure wasn’t quire as spectacular as some insiders were likely hoping for, though. (Analysts blame the game’s late release date – and the fact that it was only available on the Nintendo Wii - for the numbers.)

Junction Point, which made “Epic Mickey” was not spared from Monday’s layoffs, but cuts at that studio were minimal compared to the larger employee reductions at the division. Star developer Warren Spector is not leaving the company. 

The Mouse House is aligning itself tightly with Netflix.

The two companies today announced a deal that will significantly boost the amount of television content Netflix is able to stream from ABC, The Disney Channel and ABC Family.

The agreement encompasses both archival and recent episodes. Select shows will be available 15 days after they are broadcast – including “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Brothers & Sisters”. It also will bring all episodes of “Lost,” “Scrubs,” “Reaper” and “Ugly Betty” to Netflix’s Watch Instantly service.

Other highlights of the deal include additional from the Disney Channel, including "Phineas and Ferb" and "Good Luck Charlie" - and expanded offerings of "The Suite Life on Deck" and "Wizards of Waverly Place".  The deal will also include movies such as the “High School Musical” and “Camp Rock” franchises.

From ABC Family – whose content was previously unavailable via Netflix streaming – viewers will be able to watch "Greek," "Make It or Break It," "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and "Melissa & Joey."

Following several days of rumors, The Walt Disney Company has confirmed that it has bought social game developer Playdom, a move that dramatically expands the company’s footprint in one of the fastest growing segments of the video game world.  

Disney is paying $563.2 million for the company – as well as a performance-linked earn out for investors of up to $200 million. That’s a substantial premium over the $400 million Electronic Arts paid for Playfish, a larger company in the space, last November.

And it’s sure to be music to the ears of investors in Zynga, which is far and away the leader in the social gaming space and already has an estimated market value of over $1 billion.

Disney and Playdom were hardly strangers. Disney’s Steamboat Ventures recently was part of a $33 million financing round for the company – and in May Playdom reached a deal with ESPN to create sports games for social media platforms. The first of those is scheduled to launch this fall.

Playdom is the industry’s third largest developer of social games, behind Zynga and Playfish, with 42 million active users. Its titles include Facebook and MySpace standards including “Social City,” “Sorority Life,” “Market Street” and “Bola”.

“This acquisition furthers our strategy of allocating capital to high-growth businesses that can benefit from our many characters, stories and brands, delivering them in a creatively compelling way to a new generation of fans on the platforms they prefer,” said Disney president and CEO Robert Iger in a statement.

Earlier this month, Disney broadened its footprint in the mobile space, acquiring music rhythm game maker Tapulous, makers of “Tap Tap Revolution” for an undisclosed sum. While it was a much smaller deal – and in a different segment of the market - the Tapulous acquisition had some characteristics in common with a potential Playdom buyout. Specifically, each deal gave the company instant credibility in the space.

It also gives the company an executive who knows a growing market that Disney doesn’t. With Playdom, that’s CEO John Pleasants, who will become an EVP in Disney's Interactive Media Group. 

There's no shortage of content for young men on the Internet. The hottest audience for media companies now is Moms.

Case in point: Disney yesterday acquired Kaboose, a relatively small collection of Websites aimed at parents that deal with baby, child and family issues, for $18.4 million. For a huge media conglomerate, that's a tiny purchase and a sign that it wants to grab sites like Kaboose's Babyzone.com,  AmazingMoms.com, and FunSchool.com early on, before they become, say, Club Penguin expensive.

In its press release announcing the deal, Disney wasn't at all shy about its intentions:

But Disney isn't the only company thinking this way. In a recent interview on this blog, Yahoo's exec VP of U.S. Audience Jeff Dossett (the guy in charge of original content) said that "Chief Household Officers," his company's term for professional moms, is a top demographic priority. "It's an audience that's of very high interest to advertisers because they spend a lot of time online, they're very influential in a very high percentage of household purchases, and they're actually not well served online today," he explained.

Looks like it won't be underserved for long, however. The race for Moms, it seems, is on.