No truth to the rumor. It's been around for years.
I'm in the news business in Panama City and have lived there my whole life.
It's been said Walt Disney looked at Northwest Florida as he was searching for land for Disney World. The only problem was the St. Joe Company owned most of the land in Northwest Florida at the time and wouldn't sell it to him. So he went south to a tiny town named Orlando.
If the Disney corp buys land in the Panhandle, I'll know about it and I'll post it.
BTW, the same rumor's been floating around about Six Flags and the Panhandle. Again, no truth to this one either.