Current Events > Apple MIGHT purchase Disney if Bob Iger sells

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-apple-deal-1235559416/

A few weeks before Bob Iger sat down for that CNBC interview in which he said Disneys linear TV networks, like ABC and FX, may not be core to the companys business, a veteran Hollywood executive mused to The Hollywood Reporter on the possibility of a deal that would rock the industry: Apple buying Disney. Its an idea that keeps being discussed, even though many top executives have scoffed at it and many still do. Apple doesnt want to buy a studio, they say, and theres no way the feds would allow a huge deal like that to go through.

But this observer wasnt so quick to rule it out. I dont think [Apple] would buy the company as it presently exists, he said. But if you see Bob start to divest things that feels like hes prepping for a sale. And theres clearly no buyer like Apple.

Apple is already the richest and most evil company on earth, and Disney is an evil mega-conglomerate in its own right.
This would honestly be a nightmare scenario, and I'd HOPE that the government would fight to block it at least as hard as they did the recent MS merger.
But the U.S. has an odd history of holding Microsoft's feet to the fire regarding monopoly law and never Apple.

You'd think Iger would try to sell off Disney properties piecemeal to different bidders to maximize the money Disney gets, and that'd be better for the consumer than Apple and Disney just merging together. But sometimes it feels like CEOs do stuff that's less beneficial for the bottom line just to stick it to customers, as if that's more important.

streamofthesky posted...

You'd think Iger would try to sell off Disney properties piecemeal to different bidders to maximize the money Disney gets, and that'd be better for the consumer

How is this true at all? At first I thought you meant literal Disney properties, like Disney World and Disneyland, etc. And that wouldnt be true because the theme parks could and likely would not survive something like that. But if you mean intellectual properties, that would just spread everything out among different streaming services and make movies and shows even more difficult to watch.

Damn_Underscore posted...

How is this true at all? At first I thought you meant literal Disney properties, like Disney World and Disneyland, etc. And that wouldnt be true because the theme parks could and likely would not survive something like that. But if you mean intellectual properties, that would just spread everything out among different streaming services and make movies and shows even more difficult to watch.

I think I'd rather have that scenario instead of one company owning everything.

Apple has always wanted Disney. Apple be like...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/0/9/AAe-oZAAEvOZ.jpg
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4208890-apple-wants-to-be-disney

Can Apple even afford to buy Disney?

yes, they can probably afford multiple disneys

TetsuoS2 posted...

yes, they can probably afford multiple disneys

In what way? They could buy Disney if they really wanted to through a combination of cash, stock options, and debt, but they can't outright buy Disney with purely cash for the price Disney would demand.

Anyone that would buy Disney would be really hurting themselves short-term with all the debt that they would have to take on. Even Disney is still hurting from the Fox deal debt.

That would suck.

PiOverlord posted...

In what way? They could buy Disney if they really wanted to through a combination of cash, stock options, and debt, but they can't outright buy Disney with purely cash for the price Disney would demand.

Anyone that would buy Disney would be really hurting themselves short-term with all the debt that they would have to take on. Even Disney is still hurting from the Fox deal debt.

hey i didnt say it was good value, i just mean they could afford it.

RuneterranSnap posted...

Can Apple even afford to buy Disney?

Yes. And still have enough money left to piss away Elon Musk's net worth 10 times

Is Disney hurting that bad?

I know this year's movie weren't great at 5h3 box office for the most part, but that's about it, right?

Nothing really to be concerned about long term.

Requiem posted...

Is Disney hurting that bad?

I know this year's movie weren't great at 5h3 box office for the most part, but that's about it, right?

Nothing really to be concerned about long term.

It's got nothing to do with Disney. People like Iger get massive checks for shuffling around their company like a common commodity.

This sale would almost certainly hurt me directly. We do contract work for Disney (can't be any more specific than that) and Apple would almost certainly cancel us if they bought Disney.

Damn_Underscore posted...

How is this true at all? At first I thought you meant literal Disney properties, like Disney World and Disneyland, etc. And that wouldnt be true because the theme parks could and likely would not survive something like that. But if you mean intellectual properties, that would just spread everything out among different streaming services and make movies and shows even more difficult to watch.

Yes, I meant IP that Disney gobbled up, like Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar...

And boo hoo your streaming.
Streaming is already a hodge-podge shit show now, and breaking up these giant corporations is a bit more important than your personal convenience.
Hell, it could even make things better. Remember when every media company was too small for their own personal fucking streaming network to make sense, so they just let Hulu and Netflix air it and got a check from them for it?

ArtiRock posted...

I think I'd rather have that scenario instead of one company owning everything.

you say that now but marvel and arguably the Star Wars franchise both might have still been around, but werent going to be anywhere close to the popularity or profitability if not for Disney owning them.

No one was lining up to make a decade+ entertainment franchise with either of those before Disney

I thought Earth would one day be renamed Planet Disney. Now it looks like it'll become Planet Apple.

streamofthesky posted...

Apple is already the richest and most evil company on earth, and Disney is an evil mega-conglomerate in its own right.
This would honestly be a nightmare scenario, and I'd HOPE that the government would fight to block it at least as hard as they did the recent MS merger.
But the U.S. has an odd history of holding Microsoft's feet to the fire regarding monopoly law and never Apple.

You'd think Iger would try to sell off Disney properties piecemeal to different bidders to maximize the money Disney gets, and that'd be better for the consumer than Apple and Disney just merging together. But sometimes it feels like CEOs do stuff that's less beneficial for the bottom line just to stick it to customers, as if that's more important.

If you think apple is the most evil company on the planet you are incredibly ignorant to how bad other companies are.

Zeeak4444 posted...

No one was lining up to make a decade+ entertainment franchise with either of those before Disney

MCU started before Disney. They were already filming before a deal was struck. Their plan was put in place long before Disney came around.

Add Nintendo to the mix, and it becomes perfect.

Apple's surprisingly managed their own streaming platform pretty well. It doesn't have the "quantity over quality" issue that every other platform has and Apple already makes money hand over fist with every other product, so they don't have an incentive to just pump out garbage on Apple TV for the sake of making a quick buck.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Add Nintendo to the mix, and it becomes perfect.

Nobody wants to hear this but Apple acquiring Nintendo would turn out a lot better than people think. All of their platforms and devices are considerably more powerful than Nintendo hardware and relatively easy to develop for, and there's extensive support for almost every major video game controller via bluetooth.

CRON posted...

Nobody wants to hear this but Apple acquiring Nintendo would turn out a lot better than people think.

They're basically the same company already.

Questionmarktarius posted...

They're basically the same company already.

In theory. Nintendo is vaguely pulling off Apple's philosophy of locking consumers into a constrained ecosystem at the benefit enjoying content you can't find elsewhere.

Their main disadvantage is being a Japanese tech company. Japanese tech companies have largely been stagnant since the early 2000s since most never prioritized software services as much as hardware R&D. This is blatantly obvious in the fact that Nintendo can make great video games but has no idea what they're doing with system software or online infrastructure.

They're past the point of hardware gimmicks so in theory they could easily port something like BOTW/TOTK to Apple's architecture and suddenly you have the games available on roughly a billion devices; almost all of which (even older ones) are significantly more powerful than the Switch and support controllers with haptics and motion controls.

ArtiRock posted...

I think I'd rather have that scenario instead of one company owning everything.

You'd pirate anyway so jokes on them?

streamofthesky posted...

Remember when every media company was too small for their own personal f***ing streaming network to make sense, so they just let Hulu and Netflix air it and got a check from them for it?

I don't remember a time when every (or 90% of) movie and tv shows were on Netflix. I think that was a dream.

Tyranthraxus posted...

It's got nothing to do with Disney. People like Iger get massive checks for shuffling around their company like a common commodity.

This sale would almost certainly hurt me directly. We do contract work for Disney (can't be any more specific than that) and Apple would almost certainly cancel us if they bought Disney.

Sorry to hear that.
Hopefully this will just end up being a rumour.

Questionmarktarius posted...

They're basically the same company already.

I've always felt in terms of how they operate, Nintendo is a lot closer to Disney than they are to Apple

of course if a deal like in the OP goes through, I suppose there would no longer be a distinction anyway

Disney isn't going to sell at multi year stock price lows even if they did Apple doesnt have the 160B to buy them.

I've been hearing this a couple weeks now. We'll see.

BlueTigerLion posted...

Disney isn't going to sell at multi year stock price lows even if they did Apple doesnt have the 160B to buy them.

Apple has over $160 Billion in cash. And they could easily finance more, if they needed to.

BlueTigerLion posted...

even if they did Apple doesnt have the 160B to buy them.

Google says Apple has 200B in cash + short term "cash like" investments.

Has Bob Iger divested anything?

Outside of expanding their business I'm not really sure what they'd get out of it? Why Apple specifically?

Tyranthraxus posted...

Yes. And still have enough money left to piss away Elon Musk's net worth 10 times

idk. Musk had to get Saudis to help finance his Twitter purchase. Disney would be like what, 5x that?

It's not as if these entities are just sitting on scrooge mcduck money here. Yes they're worth this much, but they're definitely not just sitting on 1 trillion or some shit. It's all invested into something.

Looking it up, Disney has 10b cash on hand, and Apple has 50b cash on hand. They'd need to take out a sizeable loan just to purchase Disney.

And even if they're trying to purchase channels, like FX or whatever, that's still a hefty sum, but much more likely. However, a package likely nets Disney more than piecemealing it out.

ClayGuida posted...

idk. Musk had to get Saudis to help finance his Twitter purchase.

The Saudis have always owned 5% of Twitter. When Musk was going to buy it, they contacted him to maintain their ownership. He said yes so their 5% stake rolled over. There's no helping anyone finance anything. They wanted to maintain their say in what goes on.

ClayGuida posted...

It's not as if these entities are just sitting on scrooge mcduck money here. Yes they're worth this much, but they're definitely not just sitting on 1 trillion or some shit. It's all invested into something.

Looking it up, Disney has 10b cash on hand, and Apple has 50b cash on hand. They'd need to take out a sizeable loan just to purchase Disney.

It's cash and cashlike investments. Apple has 200B of it. They keep cash in short term cash like investments so it doesn't rot away to inflation. Not because they don't have it.

Apple-Disney would be massively powerful, powerful enough to merge into Amazon and Google and maybe even Sony all under one company, that level of money, power and control is incomprehensible whatever company comes out of that fusion would be the most powerful company on earth as in it'd be able to effectively own entire countries

Jesus. If the government sued Microsoft for purchasing a lowly company like Activision-Blizzard, I can't even begin to imagine how mad they're gonna be about this deal. Surely it would never go through and they would file suit INSTANTLY...right?