DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

[BostonEd]

That $1B investment wasn't directly in Sora, was it? Wasn't it in OpenAI, because of Sora? Or am I mixing up how their investment worked?

I work in IT and it was a BA in History.

You're better at "IT" now because you studied history. Same with all liberal arts majors. They weren't trained for a specific job; they were trained how to think.

 

[RivShore]

Then there’s this rumor from the gaming community that Disney may just be biding its time for a possible acquisition of all of Epic Games:

https://www.ign.com/articles/disney...loper-epic-games-but-waiting-for-right-moment

With Disney's track record in IT/software, lets hope not. Not to mention that Epic still doesn't have a release date for the Disney Mode:
"Despite two years of development work, however, there's still no suggestion of when it will finally arrive."

Unless they were able to buy it for next to nothing, why would you want to enter an industry that will soon be completely disrupted by AI. And not to mention that in general, it is an industry littered with the carcasses of the "next big thing" companies (and this was before AI). Disney has to have better things to do with all the cash we give it. Can anyone make sense of such a purchase?

 

[HokieRaven5]

With Disney's track record in IT/software, lets hope not. Not to mention that Epic still doesn't have a release date for the Disney Mode:
"Despite two years of development work, however, there's still no suggestion of when it will finally arrive."

That’s not entirely uncommon in the gaming community. Had a running joke that I had an Active Pre-Order for a game that was announced in 2017, it finally released just last fall.

 

[RivShore]

That’s not entirely uncommon in the gaming community. Had a running joke that I had an Active Pre-Order for a game that was announced in 2017, it finally released just last fall.

Wow, that is is crazy! And that brings up the question, why the heck would Disney want to get involved in an industry where that is not unusual?

 

[HokieRaven5]

Wow, that is is crazy! And that brings up the question, why the heck would Disney want to get involved in an industry where that is not unusual?

I mean some movies live in development purgatory, attractions have lived in construction purgatory going as far back as Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion opening 6 years after Disney announced it would open. Delays can be a part of any entertainment offering

Disney has always dabbled in gaming, just another outlet for brand exposure. They could easily just license but can just as soon take ownership of a developer if they think it’s worth it

 

[fatmanatee]

Wow, that is is crazy! And that brings up the question, why the heck would Disney want to get involved in an industry where that is not unusual?

There's still a lot of money that could be made here. And I'm taking a guess that @HokieRaven5 is referring to Metroid Prime 4, went through a LOT of issues in development.

All that said I thought they had the right idea with the licensing strategy, had quite a few successes in the last several years without the exposure of actually managing a studio.

 

[clarker99]

That’s not entirely uncommon in the gaming community. Had a running joke that I had an Active Pre-Order for a game that was announced in 2017, it finally released just last fall.

Grand Theft Auto VI has been in development since 2013... Lol.

 

[clarker99]

Steve Jobs has a great interview from his Pixar days on why movie production takes long, can be expensive and still have a terrible story and how disney/pixar solve for this.

Steve was a hell of story teller.

 

[RivShore]

There's still a lot of money that could be made here.

How do we know that for the long term, though? With the AI and other tech advances coming fast and furious, this is just not something they should be throwing money at.

All that said I thought they had the right idea with the licensing strategy, had quite a few successes in the last several years without the exposure of actually managing a studio.

Agreed, just keep doing this.

 

[fatmanatee]

How do we know that for the long term, though? With the AI and other tech advances coming fast and furious, this is just not something they should be throwing money at.

It's not clear what sort of impact AI will have on gaming, or who will benefit. Movie and TV studios were told they were going to be toast with AI coming in and now OpenAI is shutting down their video creation platform because it wasn't worth it anymore for them.

The bigger reason to be spooked by Epic is that Fortnite is becoming less popular and they aren't showing signs of developing something new that will grab people. You'd hope, even without buying them, that whatever they're doing with Disney now is something interesting.

 

[BayTower2010]

I mean some movies live in development purgatory, attractions have lived in construction purgatory going as far back as Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion opening 6 years after Disney announced it would open. Delays can be a part of any entertainment offering

Disney has always dabbled in gaming, just another outlet for brand exposure. They could easily just license but can just as soon take ownership of a developer if they think it’s worth it

Yes some projects can be in purgatory for decades. After Disney released Snow White to great critical and financial success, Walt wanted to adapt a fairy tale known as "The Snow Queen". Despite numerous attempts, no satisfactory story line was developed -- Until someone came up with the idea of the two protagonists being sisters. That led to Frozen, over 70 years from Walt's first interest.

 

[broncofan]

While I agree with most of this, some context - The travel stocks noted are all up 20% + in the last year, while DIS is down 4% (including the latest down-ticks). DIS has been more or less flat for the last 4 years (since the covid/streaming spike) while the S&P has gained around 60%. That about sums up my frustration (and I would think any long term investor) with the stock, and therefore the management team. Its got so many good stories to tell, but they just can't convince investors. When does that change?

Yes, that's all true. Almost any period you look at - Disney has underperformed the S&P. Despite being a wide moat company and having great IP, they just haven't had much EPS growth over the last ten years. Overpaying (in my opinion) for TCF was the key value destroyer there in my view, although they were faced with a tough set of options given the decline of linear TV. In 5-10 years that analysis might change if they are able to use those assets plus Hulu to drive a Netflix sized streaming operation.