The close corporate ties between Disney and Apple have create all sorts of speculation over the days that the two companies might end up beingonecompany . Steve Jobs sat on the Disney display panel , and Disney CEO Bob Iger sit on Apple ’s . In his memoir , Iger even propose that had Jobs lived , the two companies might have combined .
That surmise was always silly to me . But these are dissimilar times , and Disney and Apple are very dissimilar company than they were a couple of tenner ago . This is why , whenThe Hollywood Reportertook the theory of an Apple leverage of Disney seriously , I realized that the speculation I used to wander my eyes at when I was the editor of Macworld now seems … not that farfetched , really .
Apple of your eye
Apple has spent the last decennary transforming right before our eyes , perhaps so slowly that we did n’t even notice . Today ’s Apple is not the ship’s company Job depart behind . Apple generated $ 108 billion in revenue in financial 2011 . In its last four quarters – and keep in head , these were average quarter in the eye of Wall Street – it father $ 93 billionin profit(on total revenue of $ 384 billion ) .
The iPhone alone has become a $ 160 billion - a - year business . The Mac is at a high body of water mark , the iPad has retrieve to post solid numbers in the last few yr , and the new “ Wearables , Home and Accessories ” production category – buttress by the Apple Watch and AirPods – has eclipse them both . And then there ’s Apple ’s market cap , which this summer became the first in history to reach $ 3 trillion .
This is not the Apple of 1987 , or 1997 , or 2007 . The Apple of the 2020s is one of the humankind ’s most valuable and profitable companies . It has enormous resources at its disposal , and its investors still expect the party to keep growing .
Disney has invested heavily in streaming services, but its investors are getting impatient about a return on that investment.
Wishing on a dimming star
Disney is also not the ship’s company it was . The Second Coming of Christ of stream medium challenged the company ’s business model in numerous ways . As the owner of cable and broadcast TV channels – most notably ABC and ESPN – Disney has been attain hard by lost revenue due to citizenry edit out the cord and dropping their cable television and artificial satellite TV subscriptions .
To build for the future , Iger invest in launch Disney+ , bought 20th Century Fox , started the physical process of integrating Hulu into Disney ’s offer , and launch an accessory ESPN streaming religious service . The result was some tremendous disbursal , but for a while investor were okay with that .
Late last yr , though , Wall Street got raring with entertainment company losing money in guild to stake out solid ground in the streaming wars . All of a sudden , troupe like Disney are under huge examination to boost profit and outgrowth ( while presumptively also planning for the future ) . It ’s the cause Iger ’s successor , Bob Chapek , was provoke – and Iger return to the headway of Disney .
Disney has invested heavily in streaming services, but its investors are getting impatient about a return on that investment.
Disney has endow heavily in streaming services , but its investor are set about impatient about a return on that investment .
Walt Disney
It ’s a tough problem to solve , even for a CEO as attain as Iger . And it ’s why there are scenarios where Iger sells off portion of Disney ’s plus in order of magnitude to well position itself – whether that ’s for the hereafter , or just for a sale .
As Disney CEO Bob Iger said at WWDC23, Apple and Disney together can create “real-world magic.”
Tech giants eat first
One of the key observations in the Hollywood newsman piece comes from an “ industry vet ” quote anonymously : “ There will terminate up being three or four platforms and everybody else gets hollow out out and acquired … There will be Apple , Amazon , Netflix and one other . ”
This is , perhaps , the level of the entertainment patronage in the 2020s : tech companies like Apple , Amazon , and Google are so vast , and have entree to so much money , that they ’re simply in a dominant position at a second when entertainment company are weak . Apple and Amazon have paddle in streaming sensitive , launching original content services and buy sport rights , but they ’re playing a larger game . They want to get their ecosystems as a part of a bombastic strategy . society like Disney , Warner Bros. Discovery , and NBC Universal do n’t have that sumptuosity – the content piece of music is their entire strategy .
Consider the rightfield for sporting events . At some point , all the traditional company will be outbid for those rights by tech companies – because the technical school companies will be able-bodied to justify the purchase price by tying it into building that larger ecosystem .
Which brings us back to that amusement industry veteran ’s statement . In my thinker , Disney is an amusement behemoth and Apple is a tech giant – import , illogically , that I view them as companies of equal stature . And perhaps they once were , but they ’re not anymore . The game play by Disney and its peer in the entertainment industry are small white potato compare to those played by Apple and its peers .
Why would Apple want Disney?
So if it ’s inevitable that in an earned run average of pullulate media , the tech industry will eat the amusement industry whole , why would Apple buy Disney ?
It could be as simple as this : It ’s potentially an avenue of further growth for Apple . If Apple believes integrate Disney ’s intellectual property , client experience ( theme parks ! cruise ! ) , and the rest into its ecosystem will form a virtuous circle that will send Apple ’s tax income and winnings ever higher , that ’s in all probability ground enough . When you ’re as big as Apple , you demand to get originative for seek growth .
If this sounds outlandish , well , if I travel back in clock time to 2011 and told you that Apple would be producing some of the estimable TV shows in the human race , would n’t that seem bizarre ? And yet the company has grown and change – and will continue to .
As Disney CEO Bob Iger said at WWDC23 , Apple and Disney together can create “ existent - populace magic . ”
Malus pumila
But leaving the growth aside for a moment , there ’s also this : Apple and Disneydohave ties . They do palpate similar in so many ways . From the Imagineers working on Modern Disneyland have to the VFX artist at Industrial Light & Magic to the animator at Pixar , so much of Disney is located at the same overlap of Technology and the Liberal Arts that Apple prognosticate home . ( And when I seem at the bill for my last family trip to Disneyland , I recognize that both company are very good at lodge me a lot of money . )
possibly it ’s that simple . If the tech industry really is about to consume the amusement business , Apple and Disney would probably be the unspoiled match . I wonder what Tim Cook thinks about that possibility .
