The Walt Disney Co. posted a surprise 18 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings Thursday and announced an executive job switch that might point to an eventual successor to Chief Executive Robert Iger.

Iger, 58, said he was behind the decision to turn Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs into the parks and resorts chairman, while making parks chairman Jay Rasulo the new CFO.

Staggs, 49, is well respected among Wall Street analysts and had been in his job for 11 years. Rasulo, 53, has pushed a theme park expansion into China and the construction of two new cruise ships, and has been in his current job since 2005.

Both men have been with Disney 20 years or more.

Iger referred to his own career when describing the benefit of giving his CFO experience in Disney's operational end and having Rasulo gain a better perspective on the entire company.

"Having benefited myself from being given new opportunities over the years, in some cases going to places and businesses I have not been in, I think I can particularly appreciate what a real opportunity this is for both of them," Iger told analysts. "I made both Tom and Jay offers that I felt they couldn't refuse."

Iger took over from Michael Eisner in October 2005 and last year signed a five-year contract extending through January 2013. He began his career as a weatherman and joined ABC in 1974.

Some analysts wished the men well in their new jobs, but Moody's Investors Service questioned Rasulo's "apparent lack of experience in a significant financial role" and called Staggs appointment "very unusual" for a company so large.

Staggs avoided suggestions that he may be being groomed for Disney's top job.

"I'm certainly not going to speculate on what the future holds and for the moment, Jay and I are both focused on the roles we are assuming," he said.

The executive shuffle, which occurs Jan. 1, came amid signs the company is beginning to emerge from an advertising market hit hard by the recession. Continued...