List of acquisitions by Disney

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923 and since 1996 has acquired many properties to increase its size in the media industry. The table shows the most substantial and important acquisitions that Disney has made over the years.

Current acquisitions[]

Acquired company Date of acquisition Price of acquisition Details of the acquisition
Disneyland, Inc. 1957 $562,500[1] Walt Disney Productions (34.48%) buys out Western Publishing (13.8%) and Walt Disney (16.55%) making the company majority owner (64.83%)[2]
1960 nearly $7.5 million purchased out the final other shareholder, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres[3]
WED Enterprises
park designing and engineering division 		1965 the purchase also included the company name, which the unit used until 1986 when renamed to their nickname Walt Disney Imagineering
Retlaw Enterprises
parks transportation division 		1982 $42.6 million including the Walt Disney name rights[4]
Wrather Corporation 1987 50% share;[5] includes the Disneyland Hotel, Queen Mary and Spruce Goose
1988 buys the other half from Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd.[6]
Capital Cities/ABC Inc.[7] February 9, 1996 $19 billion Included the ABC network, a majority stake in ESPN, a joint-stake in Lifetime Entertainment Services, a minority stake in A&E Television Networks and a limited partnership stake in DIC Entertainment. Now known as Walt Disney Television
Starwave[8] April 30, 1998 $400 million[9] Disney acquired these companies to create their own internet search engine, Go.com.
Infoseek[10] July 12, 1999 $1.77 billion[11]
Fox Family Worldwide October 24, 2001 $2.9 billion Rebranded as ABC Family Worldwide. This purchase included Saban Entertainment (renamed as BVS Entertainment), Saban's programming assets, Fox Kids Europe and Fox Kids Latin America. It set the framework for the eventual launch of Jetix in 2004.

In 2010, Saban Capital Group formed Saban Brands, with the new subsidiary purchasing the Power Rangers and other PR-related shows (eg, VR Troopers) from Disney in May that year. Disney still owns most of the catalog of its predecessor.

The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House[12] February 17, 2004 $75 million Acquired from The Jim Henson Company. The acquired assets were placed in a newly-created division known as The Muppets Studio.
Pixar[13] May 5, 2006 $7.4 billion In 1995, Pixar and Disney signed a distribution that would last for 5 films, In 2004, the deal was about to end, Disney launched Circle 7 Animation to create sequels to Pixar’s films, In 2006, Disney bought them to alleviate their broken relationship and distribution deal.
Jetix Europe[14] December 2008 €11 per share Acquired as part of the Fox Family Worldwide purchase as Fox Kids Europe. The latter owned a majority stake in the business with the rest of the ownership listed in the Euronext Amsterdam. Disney announced to fully purchase the company in December 2008 and take them off the Euronext in order to expand the Disney XD and Disney Channel brands internationally.

Disney already owned and created the Jetix brand name and fully operated a channel in Latin America, alongside blocks in the United States, India and Japan on respective Toon Disney channels.

Hulu April 30, 2009 Disney bought 27.5% in 2009.[15] With the acquisition of Fox on March 20th, 2019 and the 10% sale from Time Warner, Disney now owns 67% of Hulu.
Marvel[16] December 31, 2009 $4 billion
Lucasfilm[17] December 21, 2012 $4 billion Dating back to the 1980s, Disney had the exclusive theme park rights for Lucasfilm's franchises.
Maker Studios[18] 2014 $450 million Renamed Disney Digital Network in 2017, and was moved under the management of Disney Interactive.
21st Century Fox[19] March 20, 2019 $71.3 billion In anticipation for the launch of Disney+, Disney sought to bulk up its film and television library by purchasing 21st Century Fox (particularly, the film and television catalog from 20th Century Fox). Prior to the purchase, the Fox Corporation was formed and consisted of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations (including Chris-Craft Industries and New World Pictures' broadcast operations), Fox News and Fox Sports. In 2020, Disney dropped the "Fox" name from all of its Fox brands in order to avoid brand confusion with the Fox Corporation.

Former acquisitions[]

Acquired company Date of acquisition Price of acquisition Details of acquisition
Miramax Films[20] 1993-2010 $60 million Including Dimension Films. In 2005, when The Weinstein brothers left the company, they took the Dimension Films brand with them,[21] On December 3, 2010, Disney sold Miramax for US$663 million to Filmyard Holdings.[22] Currently, the company's assets and a majority of their films (including the pre-2005 Dimension Films catalogue) are jointly owned by beIN Media Group (51%) and ViacomCBS's Paramount Pictures (49%).
DIC Entertainment 1995-2001 Same as Capital Cities/ABC purchase Consisted of two limited partnerships with Andy Heyward (DIC Entertainment, L.P. and DIC Productions, L.P.) and was included as part of Capital Cities/ABC purchase. DIC already had a semi-exclusive North American Home Video contract with Buena Vista Home Video that had been in effect a year before the purchase. With a backing from Bain Capital and Chase Capital Partners, Andy Heyward re-purchased the company back from Disney in 2001.[23][24] The company's assets and a majority of their shows are now owned by WildBrain.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Disneyland Tabs $2.29 Per Capita; See Small Net First Yr". Billboard. January 28, 1956. p. 69. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  2. ^ "Disneyland Draws 4,200,000; Parent Firm Buys More Stock". Billboard. January 13, 1958. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  3. ^ Thomas, Bob (1994). Walt Disney - An American Original. p. 286.
  4. ^ Peltz, James F. (October 2, 1990). "The Wonderful World of Disney's Other Firm : Entertainment: Walt Disney created a separate company for his family. Retlaw Enterprises Inc. is now worth hundreds of millions". Los Angeles Times. Times Mirror Company. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
  5. ^ Berg, Eric N. (September 29, 1987). "Company News; Wrather Accepts $21-a-Share Offer". New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  6. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Disney Buys Stake". New York Times. March 30, 1988. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  7. ^ Fabrikant, Geraldine (August 1, 1995). "The Media Business: The Merger; Walt Disney to Acquire Abc in $19 Billion Deal to Build a Giant for Entertainment" – via The New York Times.
  8. ^ Pelline, Jeff. "Disney to buy Starwave". CNET.
  9. ^ Tomczak, Mitchell (March 14, 2020). "12 Walt Disney Company Acquisitions Worth over $114 Billion" – via .
  10. ^ "Disney absorbs Infoseek - Jul. 12, 1999". money.cnn.com.
  11. ^ Tomczak, Mitchell (March 14, 2020). "12 Walt Disney Company Acquisitions Worth over $114 Billion" – via .
  12. ^ "Disney buys Muppets from Hensons | IOL Business Report". iol.co.za.
  13. ^ "Disney buys Pixar - Jan. 25, 2006". money.cnn.com.
  14. ^ "The Walt Disney Company To Acquire Outstanding Shares Of Jetix Europe". thewaltdisneycompany.com.
  15. ^ Spangler, Todd (May 2, 2009). "Disney Takes Stake In Hulu Video Site". Multichannel. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  16. ^ "Disney buys Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion - Aug. 31, 2009". money.cnn.com.
  17. ^ "Disney buys firm behind Star Wars". bbc.com. October 31, 2012.
  18. ^ Solsman, Joan E. "Disney buys YouTube network Maker Studios for $500M". CNET.
  19. ^ "Disney Officially Owns 21st Century Fox". NPR.org.
  20. ^ Mason, Ian Garrick (October 11, 2004). "When Harvey met Mickey". New Statesman. UK. Retrieved January 11, 2007.
  21. ^ Mohr, Ian (September 10, 2006). "The Weinstein Co. / Dimension Films". Variety. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  22. ^ Ryan Nakashima (December 5, 2010). "Disney completes $663M sale of Miramax". Associated Press via Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011.
  23. ^ Carl DiOrio (2000-09-18). "Bain backing buyout of DiC". Variety. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  24. ^ Charles Lyons (2000-11-19). "DIC plays new toon". Variety. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
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