Opinions - Disney to buy out Universal

[Euphoria]

It has been confirmed by the Orlando Sentinel's article in their Money section that there is a possibility of Disney to buy out Universal parks and production. This will be a major "blow" to the film industry because Disney would then have almost half of the Industry to play with.

Disney claims to have no money, but there is still a possibility that this may happen.

In all seriousness, I would like to get opinions from all of you as to what you think about this possible merger.

I will be checking back every so often to either respond to any questions or feedback if needed. Please, take time to answer the poll. I am curious to what all of you think.

[glo]

no way...just won't happen.

[WebmasterBarry]

Four words...

When hell freezes over

[Dan Murphy]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/orl-bizuniversal09080902aug09.story?coll=orl%2Dbusines s%2Dheadlines

[DocRafiki]

bad - how lame would disney get if that major competition weren't there to keep it on its toes? - just the simple girl's HO :)

[#1 Disney Fan]

It just seems weird. Hard to get my head around it.

I mean, Disney is Disney, Universal is "Universal."

Would they make Universal "Disney-fied" or would everything at Universal be tagged as "Disney." I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have a certain Disney image, and some Universal stuff doesn't fit into it. Not that Universal is bad by any means, but it's just different. They seem to be two different molds. Would Disney try to change Universal, or would they try to somehow convince us that Universal stuff which may not have previously been thought of as "Disney" is now Disney. There's a different feel to Disney and Universal. I think they'd have to get their consumers to think differently if they merged.

Couldn't it hurt Disney to have both Univeral and MGM? I mean, they are sort of competitors for certain rides with similar themes etc.

I am no expert on this by any means, but it just seems weird.

[WebmasterBarry]

Remember, this is all not firm yet.

Our resident Universal insider Earl had a few things to say about it over on the Universal board. Check it out:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=245681

[JoeThaNo1Stunna]

This is a bad idea, competition means a better product for the consumer. I hope Universal continues to get better and bigger, on their own, to make sure Disney does not rest on it's laurels.

[catsrule]

Well, I guess I am in the minority, because I think it would be kinda neat to have them all connected, but then I don't live in Florida, either.

[Jeff in BigD]

I hope this does not go through for 2 reasons:

1) This could be the final spreading too thin act that could be their undoing. Sure, Disney would own Universal, but what will that matter when someone buys Disney?

2) Competition spurs innovation & excellence. Remember how once the Japanese got a solid foothold in the American car business, American car companies scrambled to improve the quality of their cars (after years & years of resting on their laurels)? It's for this very reason that I will cheer for Dreamworks' animation to be financially successful as well.

[snoopy]

Competition spurs innovation & excellence.


Couldn't have said it better myself, so I'll just let Jeff say it for me. :)

I vote for bad idea.

[Robinrs]

Originally posted by DocRafiki
bad - how lame would disney get if that major competition weren't there to keep it on its toes? - just the simple girl's HO :)

I believe the Doc said it first and I totally agree.

I find the purchase hard to believe mostly because of the Orlando Sentinel's bend for sensationalism AND because of MSNBC's article about the latest quarterly earnings' reports of the two entities...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/789641.asp

We'll see.

[iluvorlando]

I think that this would be terrible. Competition is what keeps those two hopping.

I especially loved this comment from the other thread:

For those of us that live locally the Orlando Sentinel is not a source of information that would be used to invest one's life savings.

We don't call it the SLantinel for nothing!!

[olena]

Bad idea. The market and the consumer directly benefit from healthy competition.

If Disney is in such corporate and financial disarray, then it should concentrate its efforts to get its house in order before acquiring new problems.

[dianeschlicht]

I voted "undecided" because I have never been to Universal. That being said, I can't imagine what would make sense about the idea!

[KrnB]

I'm with everyone else on this - bad idea! The thought of them owning the movie studios isn't such a big deal (although still not a great idea) because there is still a lot of competition. But the theme parks is a different story. While I'll always prefer the Disney parks over Universal, I like that the Universal ones have some different offerings. Like a few people said above, Disney needs to have that competition to force them to continue to be innovative in order to be a step ahead of everyone else.

Olena - great point! It costs a lot of money to get an aquired company merged into the systems of the existing one. Buying another company won't automatically fix the financial issues they're having now. It probably would eventually, but not in the short term.

[nativetxn]

I don't know how I would feel about this. I love Universal and Disney for different reasons :)

[cotye]

Sounds like a very bad idea. But I remember also hearing that Universal Music would be buying up Sony... Wonder if that would happen?