Could Disney face another hostile takeover attempt?

mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Disney stocks are down again, apparently - WAY down:
1650513777681-png.634542


I believe low stocks are what led to that first hostile takeover attempt back in 1984. Especially considering how much Bob Chapek is disliked, in addition to the novelty of Disney Plus wearing off, not to mention the high prices on EVERYTHING in the parks, I can't help but wonder if this will once again leave Disney wide open to another hostile takeover. I think the only reason the 1984 takeover was averted was because of Roy E. Disney, who led a coup to bring in Eisner (followed by a second coup 20 years later to remove Eisner), and now he's gone.

So now what?
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
mharrington said:
Disney stocks are down again, apparently - WAY down:
1650513777681-png.634542


I believe low stocks are what led to that first hostile takeover attempt back in 1984. Especially considering how much Bob Chapek is disliked, in addition to the novelty of Disney Plus wearing off, not to mention the high prices on EVERYTHING in the parks, I can't help but wonder if this will once again leave Disney wide open to another hostile takeover. I think the only reason the 1984 takeover was averted was because of Roy E. Disney, who led a coup to bring in Eisner (followed by a second coup 20 years later to remove Eisner), and now he's gone.

So now what?
Click to expand...
Once again Disney is a very different company now vs in 1984. The company is much larger and well more capable and in a much better position of staving off any potential hostile takeover today. ie they are not vulnerable despite the stock being down.

First and foremost in order for a hostile takeover any potential company/individual would have to acquire a substantial amount of Disney stock in order to do that. Whomever would have to acquire at least 25% of available stock, which at the current price would cost approx. $56 Billion. So it would be very costly even with DIS stock being down, and not many companies would be willing to swallow that large of investment just for a "potential" hostile takeover. Because as I said Disney is in a much better position today due to the capital reserves it has access to. It currently has almost $15B in cash, plus access to more through assets, more than enough to do stock buybacks to prevent anyone from gaining enough shares to attempt a hostile takeover.

Not to mention that Disney is STILL one of the largest media companies IN THE WORLD. And it would likely cost over $250 Billion for someone to acquire Disney outright, let alone a hostile takeover.

So no Disney is not at risk of facing another hostile takeover like in 1984. If it was going to happen it would have happened during the year that Disney Parks were closed between 2020-2021 and Disney didn't have much revenue coming in.
 
Walt Disney1955

Walt Disney1955

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
Disney stocks are down again, apparently - WAY down:
1650513777681-png.634542


I believe low stocks are what led to that first hostile takeover attempt back in 1984. Especially considering how much Bob Chapek is disliked, in addition to the novelty of Disney Plus wearing off, not to mention the high prices on EVERYTHING in the parks, I can't help but wonder if this will once again leave Disney wide open to another hostile takeover. I think the only reason the 1984 takeover was averted was because of Roy E. Disney, who led a coup to bring in Eisner (followed by a second coup 20 years later to remove Eisner), and now he's gone.

So now what?
Click to expand...

Their best bet is to keep quiet now and sort of let things fade away. Stuff like the videos of staff members saying some questionable things about the content they want to put out. The people obviously have not liked to hear that sort of thing.
 
Rosso11

Rosso11

Well-Known Member
It’s down to 200 billion. Honestly I can see Apple finally going after it. The rumors are out there about Netflix right now being a big target. For twice the price Disney is the real prize. If Steve Jobs didn’t pass away it probably would have happened years ago. With streaming today it makes even more sense for Apple to buy them. I just bought a bunch of long term leaps on Disney today with this being one of the possible outcomes. Apple has more than enough cash to just do it right now. Personally I would rather Disney stay independent but with its valuation right now and the internal turmoil it’s definitely a target and I would rather Apple over Amazon to make a bid.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Rosso11 said:
It’s down to 200 billion. Honestly I can see Apple finally going after it. The rumors are out there about Netflix right now being a big target. For twice the price Disney is the real prize. If Steve Jobs didn’t pass away it probably would have happened years ago. With streaming today it makes even more sense for Apple to buy them. I just bought a bunch of long term leaps on Disney today with this being one of the possible outcomes. Apple has more than enough cash to just do it right now. Personally I would rather Disney stay independent but with its valuation right now and the internal turmoil it’s definitely a target and I would rather Apple over Amazon to make a bid.
Click to expand...
Iger did say that had Steve remained alive that they would have had at least a discussion about the possible merger of the two companies. However I think there would have been too many things about Disney that Apple has no experience in that Steve would have ended up passing, like the Parks. And that was over a decade ago long before Disney and Apple even got into streaming.

I still don't see it happening even today had Steve not died, and less likely under Tim Cook. Because while both companies are in streaming there is still too much about Disney operations that Apple has no experience in running. If Apple was to go after a studio I would see Lionsgate as their first target, plus they get Starz in the process. So while I never say never about these type of future speculations I think its less likely that Apple buys Disney, even if Disney's market value has gone down recently.
 
CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Slpy3270

Slpy3270

Well-Known Member
CaptainAmerica said:
Incredible. He wants them to buy out the rest of Hulu ASAP but spin off ESPN.

Those two things are mutually exclusive. Disney doesn't want to kill the cable bundle, Disney wants to BE the cable bundle. They need ESPN for that.
Click to expand...
It's obvious he believes the Netflix stock drop was a fluke and is headed back to $400-$500 a share.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
If his 'participation' could ramp Disney back up to it's previous high, that would be a 20% increase on investment.

Buy an undervalued stock and don't wait for it to go back up on its own... goose it a bit.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
While I agree with him on the Hulu point, accelerating the buyout from Comcast would be better in my opinion to speed up the integration into D+ making it unified across all regions, but his points about ESPN are a bit "old fashioned" to say the least.
 
mightynine

mightynine

Well-Known Member
I do expect Hulu to be rolled up into D+ at some point, especially when Comcast pulls out. I don't see the need for two separate apps. Give Hulu the STAR treatment.
 

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