Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
PRICE HIKES for sure.
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Walt Disney board extends Iger's contract as Chairman and CEO through June 2018
- Thread starter Kingoglow
- Start date
PRICE HIKES for sure.
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Did you know that Gadget actually has a church in Russia?Anyone else ever find Gadget attractive?
No?
Okay...I'll see myself out...
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
I think Iger is incredible in therms of Wall Street and general performance as a giant corporation.
But he has left local Parks in the dust for way too long. Isnt Parks the most stable and constant income of their entire portfolio?
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
I think we both recognize that in the real world, the market doesn't act purely on common sense or logic.
Instead, it reacts emotionally based on how it thinks everyone else will react. It reacts not based on what happened yesterday, but what it thinks will happen tomorrow. The market guesses and builds in those guesses into the price of a stock.
Everyone is trying to get a jump on everyone else. Everyone is trying to stay ahead of the curve. As a result, the market constantly overreacts.
In theory, a stock buyback should have no effect on market cap. In theory, as stock is taken out of circulation, the stock price should adjust to reflect the new EPS, resulting in an identical market cap.
The reality is that the market anticipates those buybacks before they occur.
Thus, today’s stock price (and therefore market cap) is inflated in anticipation of tomorrow’s stock buyback. These anticipated purchases already are built into the stock price.
Think of it this way. Disney’s BOD has authorized the repurchase of an additional 93 million shares (roughly $8B at today’s stock price) while suggesting to the market that even more authorizations will follow.
What happens tomorrow if Disney announces it is cancelling this and all future stock repurchases?
Disney’s stock price will drop. As a result, its market cap will drop even though, on paper, stock repurchase should have no effect on market cap.
Again, how the market actually reacts is very different than how the market should react.
Stock buybacks very much influence market cap.
BrerJon
Well-Known Member
I really don't see what benefits a guest gets from paying with bands instead of cards. When I was in the parks last week I timed paying for stuff at Food & Wine... the person in front had to wave a MagicBand over the sensor, wait a few seconds for it to go green, then enter a PIN number for the transaction to complete. Total time, 15 seconds. I gave a credit card to the cashier who swiped it and gave it back to me with a receipt, total time, 5 seconds. Seems like a backward step to me.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Regarding this, it's worth pointing out that the parks have cut offering under Iger. So, if DAK and DHS are "half day parks", Iger is at least partially to blame. I mean, it's great that DAK is getting Rivers of Light, but did the MJJ parade have to be cut? What about the parades at DHS? What about the net entertainment cuts at Epcot? What about Sounds Dangerous, AIE and now the Baklot Tour being shuttered?
I think most of us will agree that Eisner didn't do the parks any favors in the last ~5 years of his leadership, but all Iger has done is continued that trend and made it worse. He's been far from a savior of the parks.
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Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
Projecting the first 9 months of FY2014 onto the last quarter, Disney revenue is up about 56% during Iger's first 9 years as CEO, a respectable but not particularly exciting 5.1% compound annual growth rate despite 3 high-profile acquisitions.
Yet market cap is up roughly 200%.
Maybe, just maybe, repurchasing a billion shares of stock in order to inflate EPS had just a bit to do with that.
What is exciting for shareholders is that company-wide gross margins are up under Iger.
Wasn't going to get that detailed but companies with large sums of retail investors can raise market cap by performing buybacks that can alter fundamentals.
DisDan
Well-Known Member
Not that I am advocating on behalf of MM+ or anything, but you skipped the part where you had to get your wallet out, look for the card you wanted to grab, and pull it out of your wallet. Then getting it back and putting it back in your wallet. Now, your experience might be slightly different, but not having to carry said wallet and worry about pulling out the CC is where that handy dandy Magic Band comes in.
BrerJon
Well-Known Member
Fair enough. I usually get the card out while I'm waiting in the line to pay so have it ready before I get to the front.
Mike S
Well-Known Member
Same here. It also helps that I only have one debit card.
I'm not a critic of all things MM+, but this I agree with. Contactless pay doesn't seem quicker than using a credit card. And it isn't much more convenient. I guess it'll save me from taking my wallet out, but I've never considered that much of a hardship.
it does probably save Disney a bit of money, since I assume they charge the credit card for a batch of transactions, rather than one at a time, saving some "swipe" fees.
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biggy H
Well-Known Member
But when the US catches up and you have to use a pin for every transaction however small then it won't be 5 seconds...
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Its not about clients and the ease of use imho.
Its about the mentality.
Some people think that swiping a digital card with the disney logo = same as a credit card, thus they are more wary on waving it around.
some people might get blind by swiping their magicbands thus they might end expending more.
willtravel
Well-Known Member
I agree with what you said. But I would think at WDW and all businesses that "swipe" fee has somehow been added to your amount due anyway. A car wah by me added the use of Visa and MC. The car wash I normally get was 5.50, now 5.75 after this credit card use was added.
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Even those of us who don't see Iger as a demon wouldn't argue that he's been anything close to a savior of any park but DCA (and many refuse to give him any credit for that, even though he gets the blame for every bad thing -- but I digress). It's clear that Iger is out to make money for the company, and will do so by whatever means he (and his team) determine will work best, and that, for the parks, he doesn't believe significant capital investments in attractions and spending on park ops are the way to go. This is disappointing to all of us. But it may not be wrong -- that is, Iger may be right that the way the parks have been run and maintained the past 9 years was the way to make them most profitable. The signs of investment that we are seeing now, if they actually pan out (Avatar, significant investment at DHS, upgrades(?) at DtD, a bunch of infrastructure work) suggest that Iger now believes that the best way to maximize profitability of WDW includes more capital investment than in the past 9 years. I hope I/we are reading those signs right.
But even if we are, it won't make him a park-lover or savior. He's out for profits. Unlike Rasulo, who doesn't seem to have liked the parks at all, I think Iger (and Staggs) make their decisions not based on liking or disliking the parks or any aspect of them, but based upon what they think will make the parks most profitable. That means they make decisions based on what the guests like (as best they can figure out) and will pay for. And we around here aren't "average" guests, so it's not surprising that those decisions don't line up with our desires.
Lots of people around here hate the DDP, but it's brought lots of money to the company, and most guests who use it like it. Lots of people around here are fed up with Frozen stuff, but anything Frozen seems to be mobbed in the parks. Lots of people (even around here) are willing to pay what I consider to be unconscionable rates at deluxe resorts -- those rooms cost about 200% what I'd be willing to pay for them, and I have the money to pay for them if I thought they were worth it -- but enough people are willing to pay that it works.
He's a profit-motivated guy, and he's making decisions (in all areas of the company) based on that. And they aren't all short-term focused, as some continue to assert. Buying LucasFilm was not a short-term move, nor was buying Marvel. Two new cruise ships was not a short-term decision. Cutting AIE 5 months early -- that was a short-term decision. So were the Epcot entertainment cuts/swaps. But not everything is "screw the future, I care about now."
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Tony Perkis
Well-Known Member
Under his reign, ESPN has basically lost all journalistic credibility and panders significantly to invested interest like the University of Texas and the SEC.
I don't like him.
I don't like him.
Like all other costs a business is exposed to, credit card swipe fees are considered in setting prices. But you can't pass on costs raise prices to amounts customers won't pay. And having less costs gives you the choice of lowering prices or having bigger profits. In any event, lower costs gives Disney more flexibility. It's the credit card issuers that lose...and they are banks, so I'm content with that.
CDavid
Well-Known Member
Of course, such an opposing view skips the part where you have to wear a silly plastic bracelet all day long, and given a choice between the two, I would rather fish a card out of my pocket (you don't really need the whole wallet, just the Rfid KTTW card, but most of us are used to carrying one anyway). It's not like its a lot of trouble, and indeed, having to use a wallet (or purse) never stopped people spending money before. Much more important than saving guests two seconds of their time is giving them something they really want to buy; How much more successful do you think Memento Mori will be in stimulating sales than will Magic Bands (in that one shop)?
Yes, but they could accomplish the same thing with the KTTW card - no NGE program (or expense) required.
TimothyG
Member
Source for the lack of DVC revenue? It's hard to tell because it gets lumped together with P&R revenue (as opposed to it's own line item in quarterly reports), but I'm pretty sure it's doing well. It's, of course, not their biggest revenue driver, but it's not doing poorly from my understanding. I view DVC like Annual Passes. They don't really sell a lot of them, but they certainly have a market.
Honestly, that's kind of over dramatic. MyMagic+ has been a huge success in terms of guest satisfaction. There is a far greater number of people using the Fastpass system right now. And it's not like there was no planning involved beforehand.
I don't think they are working under any false assumptions. Not all people have smartphones, but most people do. Well over half of Americans own smartphones. The income of a family going on a Disney vacation is generally higher than average household income (e.g., if you visit Disney, your household is probably earning more than $50k / year). Therefore, Disney's guests are more likely to be able to afford a smartphone.
Also, most people probably do want to carry their phone around the parks. Most people use their phone as their camera and were already carrying them around. Actually, I don't see why you wouldn't want to have your phone on you. What if you tripped in the park, broke your leg and had to go to the hospital? Or if something happened back home and you needed to be contacted by a relative?
Regardless, for the non-smartphone or non-phone carrying types, you can make all your reservations on the PC before you leave home and use the kiosks. So it's not like there really is any dependency whatsoever on smartphones for MM+. Kind of like you don't really need your smartphone to use Facebook or Twitter, it just makes it more convenient.
Indeed. But I suspect that more people are doing it with the band than did it with the card.