Disney being acquired by Apple is a topic that emerges almost every year and owes its roots to the simple fact that Disney was the first company to make its television shows and movies available on iTunes.
Yes, going as far back as 2005, there have been reports that Disney could sell a majority interest to Apple.
The latest round of speculation stems from the fact that Iger recently stated that Disney is looking to divest itself of assets like ABC, ESPN, FX, and Freeform.
The company is also reportedly looking to jettison the India-based Hotstar portion of Disney+, which recently lost streaming rights to cricket. It's reported that nearly a third of Disney Plus' total subscribers are based in India, and that the subscribers in that region primarily signed up to watch cricket.
What all these assets have in common is that they're money-losers for Disney, which led to a recent comment from Iger that "[linear TV] may not be core to Disney."
However, Wall Street analysts are keen to view any sort of wholesale or partial sell-offs as signs that a major corporation is gearing up to be acquired. Yet, it may not be that simple in Disney's case.
If you dig deeper into the company's earnings, they definitely overspent on Disey+ under previous CEO Bob Chapek's reign. Combined with lower box office revenue this past year, it was largely revenue from the theme parks and merchandising that kept the company afloat. Selling off negative assets is likely more about moving the needle on the company's bottom line and less about gearing up to be acquired.
On today's earnings call, Bob Iger responded to the article from THR, referring to it as speculation.
"I just am not going to speculate about the potential for Disney to be acquired by any company, whether they’re a technology company or not,” Iger told investors on the call. “Obviously anyone who wanted to speculate about such things would have to immediately consider the global regulatory environment. I’ll say no more than that. It’s just, it’s not something that we obsess about."
What are your thoughts on Apple acquiring Disney? Do you think that would hurt or harm the output of Star Wars, Marvel, and animation projects? Disney purists (specifically theme park fans) have long been outraged by the mere notion, pointing to the fact that Walt Disney would never entertain selling the company.
Ironically, this all brings to mind a scene from Batman Begins when Rutger Hauer's William Earle uttered the line, "I think, after 20 years, we can allow ourselves to stop thinking about what Thomas Wayne would have done. Thomas would probably not have taken the company public, but that is what we, as responsible managers, are going to do."
Do you think it's time Disney should stop asking themselves what would Walt do, and start thinking about what's best for the company's future?