Playdom boss made Disney Interactive co-president

The Walt Disney Co. has made Playdom CEO John Pleasants the new co-president of its Disney Interactive Media division, sharing the role with Yahoo head man James Pitaro.

The two men will start in their new roles on October 18th, replacing long-time Disney man Steve Wadsworth, who left the company in September.

Disney bought up social games site Playdom this summer for a stately $563m, as part of a raft of purchases massively expanding its presence in the casual gaming sector. Disney CEO Bob Iger told Bloomerg that the new appointments were a continuation of this expansion.

DIM lost $130m over the first nine months of 2010, making it the only unprofitable division of Disney.

“We see this as a growth area and we need people experienced in how to best operate them,” Iger said yesterday.

He went on to state his intentions to allow the new co-presidents freedom to run their respective new commitments, which for Pleasants include Playdom, Disney’s Club Penguin, the World of Cars virtual unit and Tapulous. Pitaro will oversee Disney.com, Family.com and DigiSynd.