Apple looking to buy Disney?!?!

[HMF]

Ha, I always wait to hear Judy Dench say his name at that part.

It's better that he goes unnamed. None of the historical figures in Spaceship Earth were identified by name in the narration until the 2007 refurb when they mention Gutenburg by name which I think is a mistake. It is mankind's story not any individual person.

 

[Laketravis]

Spaceship Earth - Brought to you by Apple

Sign me up. Where do I board?

Right here:

 

[HauntedPirate]

No, as a stockholder I want them to fix all 4 themeparks, add more attractions to the 2 water parks, increase on property hotel rooms and DVC rooms to 50,000 and yes build the new gate. This should all be done along with buying another company to make any proposed takeover unlikely. I don't want apple or any other company taking over Disney. WDW should be able to draw 70 million a year and fill up 50,000 rooms by the end of the 2020s. I want Disney to make a fortune and make my trips even better, longer and more enjoyable as I continue to spend more and more each year.

So you think they are going to add another 20,000 hotel rooms (a 66% increase) and increase overall theme park attendance by 15+ million guests per year (a roughly 25% increase)? At a time when they are increasing ticket prices to discourage increased attendance at MK because of capacity problems, which isn't going away anytime soon. Ummm... "Hello in there, Cliff. Tell me... what color is the sky in your world?"

 

[Scuttle]

Given that Steve Jobs is in the ride,That is not a very far stretch.

That's debatable

 

[Scuttle]

Why would they want to manufacture toys? The current model of just licensing the characters to other manufacturers makes a lot more sense. They get paid for every Star Wars toy made and don't have any of the risk of making the next toy that no one likes or that unexpectedly has a design flaw that results in kids getting blinded and lawsuits piling up. No reason to try and squeeze out any direct profits from toys because it has way too many downside risks.

Mr. Wonderful would approve of that model.

 

[ford91exploder]

Yet there are some companies that no longer exist or are just a tiny semblance of their former self because they didn't diversify enough (coughMotorolacough).

There comes a time when the past core of a business is no longer relevant. I don't think anyone seriously believes the brunt of Apple's business ten years from now will still be an iPhone.

No it will be CONTENT, Remember it was AAPL who made legal content 'frictionless', AAPL will still be making devices but they will be part of a complete media ecosystem from production to consumption.

 

[ford91exploder]

Yet there are some companies that no longer exist or are just a tiny semblance of their former self because they didn't diversify enough (coughMotorolacough).

There comes a time when the past core of a business is no longer relevant. I don't think anyone seriously believes the brunt of Apple's business ten years from now will still be an iPhone.

I think Motorola was an exception because it hired a generation of incompetent managers who wanted to 'unlock shareholder value", All pf Motorola's Business Units have survived but are now owned by other companies, Motorola was a company where if something generated or received Radio Frequency energy Motorola used to have a piece of it even if it was made somewhere other than Motorola it contained Motorola parts and IP.

Motorola's slow motion train wreck is kind of the future I see for Disney, Poor decisions are made and in an effort to make Motorola 'buzzword compliant' Motorola management forgot what made Motorola great. Which very simply was the best and most innovative RF engineering on the planet.

 

[Laketravis]

I think Motorola was an exception because it hired a generation of incompetent managers who wanted to 'unlock shareholder value", All pf Motorola's Business Units have survived but are now owned by other companies, Motorola was a company where if something generated or received Radio Frequency energy Motorola used to have a piece of it even if it was made somewhere other than Motorola it contained Motorola parts and IP.

Motorola's slow motion train wreck is kind of the future I see for Disney, Poor decisions are made and in an effort to make Motorola 'buzzword compliant' Motorola management forgot what made Motorola great. Which very simply was the best and most innovative RF engineering on the planet.

I don't know whether to be insulted or flattered I worked for Motorola in a management capacity during the peak of it's heyday in several sectors (land mobile, paging & cellular, semiconductor) but left before they imploded. But I can say your account is pretty accurate - the "Galvanites" were forced out by the newly minted MBA's.

It was truly sad to see such an innovative company broken down into several pieces and sold off.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Ain't happening. Move along nothing to see here

 

[Bacon]

This scares me Apple also might want to spin off the theme parks and real estate, although that would be “a more complex and less obvious transaction.” What does that mean
@marni1971

 

[MisterPenguin]

This scares me Apple also might want to spin off the theme parks and real estate,

Apple might want to actually buy Disney first. Until that happens, or this rumor isn't more than fevered dreaming, don't worry what they'll do with it.

 

[ford91exploder]

I don't know whether to be insulted or flattered I worked for Motorola in a management capacity during the peak of it's heyday in several sectors (land mobile, paging & cellular, semiconductor) but left before they imploded. But I can say your account is pretty accurate - the "Galvanites" were forced out by the newly minted MBA's.

It was truly sad to see such an innovative company broken down into several pieces and sold off.

That comment was made in referrence to C levels like Padmasree Warrior who brought much joy to Cisco's competition when she signed on after leaving a trail of destruction at Motorola she's moved on to an EV startup NIO now may god have mercy on their souls...

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

When does the sell become final?

 

[DisneyGentlemanV2.0]

Apple gave up on the auto drive cars for now.

Except they have not...

 

[Bacon]

I've heard that there's a little bit higher than a 0% chance of this happening also guess what else has a little bit higher than a 0% chance the world ending today
DON'T BELIVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ONLINE KIDS

 

[FutureCEO]

 

[DisneyCane]

I don't know whether to be insulted or flattered I worked for Motorola in a management capacity during the peak of it's heyday in several sectors (land mobile, paging & cellular, semiconductor) but left before they imploded. But I can say your account is pretty accurate - the "Galvanites" were forced out by the newly minted MBA's.

It was truly sad to see such an innovative company broken down into several pieces and sold off.

Motorola was doomed from nepotism when Chris Galvin was named CEO. He had no vision and no idea what the core competency of the company was. Remember his announcement that the future of Motorola was going to be turning into a biotech company?

The single thing that led to the eventual failure was that they forgot who their customer actually was. They were convinced that consumers wanted the tiny analog StarTac instead of the much bigger new digital phones that they completely focused around it. What they forgot is that the carriers were really the customer because they were subsidizing the phones. The carriers wanted digital phones (even if they sounded like crap at the time) because they could support higher capacity in the same bandwidth.

The nail in the coffin was, of course, when Chris Galvin announced that Motorola Labs would be closed and all advanced R&D would be moved to the product groups.

Anyway, Disney is a company that should be able to exist well beyond our lifetimes because they have unique assets, an established brand and compete in a space (at least for for Parks and Resorts) that has a very high barrier to entry.

It is very likely that Apple declines at some point over the next 10-15 years. In reality, they are so successful right now because of "Apple Fanatics." There is nothing that Apple sells that you can't get an equivalent of (usually for less money) from another manufacturer. The iPhone/iPad were unique when first released to the touch screen interface. Every smartphone and tablet has this interface now. The new Apple watch is, in large part, a ripoff of Fitbit's products.

 

[Laketravis]

Motorola was doomed from nepotism when Chris Galvin was named CEO. He had no vision and no idea what the core competency of the company was. Remember his announcement that the future of Motorola was going to be turning into a biotech company?

The single thing that led to the eventual failure was that they forgot who their customer actually was. They were convinced that consumers wanted the tiny analog StarTac instead of the much bigger new digital phones that they completely focused around it. What they forgot is that the carriers were really the customer because they were subsidizing the phones. The carriers wanted digital phones (even if they sounded like crap at the time) because they could support higher capacity in the same bandwidth.

The nail in the coffin was, of course, when Chris Galvin announced that Motorola Labs would be closed and all advanced R&D would be moved to the product groups.

Anyway, Disney is a company that should be able to exist well beyond our lifetimes because they have unique assets, an established brand and compete in a space (at least for for Parks and Resorts) that has a very high barrier to entry.

It is very likely that Apple declines at some point over the next 10-15 years. In reality, they are so successful right now because of "Apple Fanatics." There is nothing that Apple sells that you can't get an equivalent of (usually for less money) from another manufacturer. The iPhone/iPad were unique when first released to the touch screen interface. Every smartphone and tablet has this interface now. The new Apple watch is, in large part, a ripoff of Fitbit's products.

There were actually several factors that contributed to their eventual failure. Lofty projects and goals like Iridium (what a mess that was), doubling gross revenue over 5 years, PowerPC (they had a really nice relationship with Apple that they blew over egos), and a few other lesser known campaigns that robbed focus. But yeah, I think we all agree just because a company is great at meeting a need today doesn't mean that need will even exist tomorrow.

 

[DisneyCane]

There were actually several factors that contributed to their eventual failure. Lofty projects and goals like Iridium (what a mess that was), doubling gross revenue over 5 years, PowerPC (they had a really nice relationship with Apple that they blew over egos), and a few other lesser known campaigns that robbed focus. But yeah, I think we all agree just because a company is great at meeting a need today doesn't mean that need will even exist tomorrow.

I forgot about Iridium (which now exists as a profitable enterprise). Apple also screwed Motorola when they artificially limited the Motorola phone with integrated iTunes to 100 songs. At the time I assumed it was to protect the iPod. Little did I know that it was really because they were working on the iPhone.

 

[Bacon]

Ahh yes this always comes up every year someone kill this thread already

 

[ford91exploder]

Apple would be in conflict with Disney. Itune's lowered the record industries profit by a huge amount, Apple doing an Itune's on Disney material would drop the value of Disney in half. No one buys a company to cut the profits. Sony ran into the same problem, how do you sell hardware that might lower your content business's profits?

Like I said before Apple will not buy Disney.

One thing AAPL understands is the need to cannibalize your business before someone does it for you. Which is EXACTLY what AAPL did to the record industry with ITunes