Rumor/Rampant Speculation re possibility of WDC selling ESPN

[Anthony Vito]

Purely rumor and speculation/what ifs, but I know this has been a topic of discussion at times as to whether Disney would sell ESPN. On the Dan Le Batard radio show this week, they had a lengthy discussion about this, particularly whether Apple would consider buying ESPN from Disney. There was even a detour discussing whether Apple would even consider trying to buy the entire Walt Disney Company (obviously discussed over the years as well, particularly since it was mentioned as a discussion/possibility back when Steve Jobs was alive).

This discussion was a bit more interesting because one of the two guests discussing it on the show was John Skipper - the former president of ESPN (the other was David Samson who was the former president of the Miami Marlins - so more of an MLB expert). The rationale for the discussion had a lot to do with Apple potentially deciding to try to buy ESPN in order to compete with Amazon if Amazon is successful in building its sports programming. Interestingly, Skipper thought ESPN wouldn't sell for LESS than $100 Billion.

I just thought this was rather interesting considering this kind of thing has been speculated about for a while and that Skipper was part of the discussion. Skipper now has a sports media company called Meadowlark Media that he started with Dan Le Batard and he's president of the sports streaming service DAZN (referred to as Da Zone) which I guess is British but I've heard advertised for its boxing coverage and content.

 

[M:SpilotISTC12]

Not sure if it'll happen. Disney would need espn to help grow the sports gambling brand they want to build. Now if they pull away from the gambling idea then it's not out of the realm of possibility but highly unlikely.