Filed under: Apple Financial
Speculation: Will Steve take out Disney?
We've just gotten used to the news of Disney's agreement to acquire Pixar. That deal makes Steve the largest Disney
shareholder, with ownership of 7% of Disney's stock. Now Barron's
is speculating that Apple may turn the tables and make a bid to acquire Disney. Barron's floated the idea of an Apple bid for Disney this weekend, quoting analyst Christopher Whalen saying: "I think he [Jobs] has an open option. Disney is badly undervalued right now. Jobs may get an opportunity to take it out." Whalen supports this idea by pointing out Steve's "familiarity with both the content and technology side of Hollywood" and the notion that Disney shareholders "would welcome a merger led by their apparent savior, Steve Jobs."
What's the likelihood this scenario will play out? Blogger Louis Gray thinks it can only happen in "a business reporter's dream." He argues that the financials don't add up and worries that taking over Disney would quash the possibility of Apple offering shows from competitors like NBC or Viacom/MTV on iTunes. Now I don't pretend to be a financial analyst, so I'm just taking it all in. An Apple acquisition of Disney does sound wild; but honestly, at this point nothing Steve does would be a surprise.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Carl Trimble said 12:45PM on 2-27-2006
Or... Everything Steve does is a surprise!
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racco said 1:14PM on 2-27-2006
as Scott McNulty said a few posts ago
"I don't care about the rumors"
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kc! said 1:23PM on 2-27-2006
Spin off itunes/iPod into a seperate company then apple buys disney. Although that would be a very scary scary day.
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Jacob Varghese said 1:26PM on 2-27-2006
This is really just mental masturbation on Barron's part. Disney is a diversified entertainment company. Steve might be great at running fairly focused companies, but running a large corp like Disney could be a nightmare. Besides, as Jan mentions, this could hurt the chances of signing up additional content for iTunes.
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Jay said 1:28PM on 2-27-2006
The big question is "why would Apple want Disney?" Disney wanting Pixar made sense (though if I worked for Pixar I'd be miffed) but I don't see it making sense for Apple.
Eisner did a good job of milking the animation archives for every dime possible by re-issues and marketing tie-ins. The rest of the company (theme parks, non-animation studios) are a drain on the bottom line and have been for years. Other than breaking the company up and keeping the Pixar/Disney animation unit, there's no money in it.
I think Gray took one too many hits on the ole crack pipe.
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Bassam said 1:38PM on 2-27-2006
After the whole AOL-Time Warner fiasco, I don't know if anyone is ready for another Computer company taking over a Media company.
I don't think it's going to happen.
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Robert Knight said 2:34PM on 2-27-2006
Looks like Dvorak is rubbing off onto others. There's probably a cream that'll make that go away.
Barron's, call your doctor.
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Kaz said 8:50PM on 2-27-2006
Well, actually, ESPN makes Disney a lot of money.
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