The Walt Disney Company Case

The Walt Disney Company

When Walt Disney Company is brought up in conversation most people will think of Disneyland, Disneyworld, animated films, and movies. In 2013 it was named “Company of the Year” by Yahoo Finance. Walt Disney Company has withstood the test of time for being opening and operating for over 90 years.

Background of the Industry

On October 16, 1923 two brothers by the name of Walt and Roy Disney founded a company named Walt Disney. The company’s initial name was Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. The company later changed its name to Walt Disney Productions. Disney is one of the primary major corporations of motion pictures productions to produce films for television. It launched its first series called Disneyland in 1954. Since its launching, the company not only produced cartoons, but they have also produced market motion pictures, programs for television, amusement and theme parks, musical books, comics, and resorts. Many retail stores sell character merchandise with the Disney name. Disney interactive has published many mobile games and apps. As a result of the various entities established by the Walt Disney Company, the revenue has increased year after year. The following data is a report of the stats from 2009-2013:

Financial Data (www.waltdisneycompany.com)

The Walt Disney Company has continued to grow in the last decade. Quite a bit of its scuesss was brought by the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Robert A. Iger who became CEO in 2005. From that point they acquired three major companies, Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billon (La Monica, 2006), Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion (Fritz, 2009), and Lucasflims for another $ 4 billion (Schou, 2012). In less than two years after acquiring Marvel Entertainment, Walt Disney Company made a net profit of close to $800 million. Currently, Walt Disney Company stock price is sitting around 90 on the New York Stock Exchange. In Figure 1, shows the financial data of Walt Disney Company from 2013 to 2009.

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