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Speculation: Will Steve take out Disney?

by Jan Kabili Feb 27th 2006 at 12:30PM

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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We've just gotten used to the news of Disney's agreement to acquire Pixar. That deal makes Steve the largest Disney shareholder, with...
 

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Kaz

Well, actually, ESPN makes Disney a lot of money.

February 27 2006 at 8:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rob Knight

Looks like Dvorak is rubbing off onto others. There's probably a cream that'll make that go away.

Barron's, call your doctor.

February 27 2006 at 2:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bassam

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.

February 27 2006 at 1:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay

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.

February 27 2006 at 1:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jacob Varghese

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.

February 27 2006 at 1:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kc!

Spin off itunes/iPod into a seperate company then apple buys disney. Although that would be a very scary scary day.

February 27 2006 at 1:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
racco

as Scott McNulty said a few posts ago

"I don't care about the rumors"

February 27 2006 at 1:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Carl Trimble

Or... Everything Steve does is a surprise!

February 27 2006 at 12:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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