Swot Analysis Of Walt Disney Company

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The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as “Disney”, is an American Company headquartered in Burbank, California. It was founded by Walt and Roy Disney as The Disney Brothers Studio by signing a contract with M.J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies on October 16 1923.
Disney is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive media. Following is a brief description of each of them.
1) Media Networks division is comprised of an array of broadcast, radio, publishing, and digital businesses across two divisions – the Disney/ABC Television Group and ESPN Inc. The group is mainly concerned with content development and broadcasting.
2) Walt Disney opened Disneyland on 17th July 1955 based around immersive experience. Today, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts has grown into the world’s leading provider of family travel and leisure.
3) The Walt Disney Studios is the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company was built. This division currently includes Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation, Marvel Studios, Lucas Films, Touchstone Pictures and DreamWorks Studios.
4) Disney Consumer Products delivers products across diverse categories ranging from toys and apparel to books and fine art. This segment is divided into three units: licensing, publishing and Disney Store.
5) Disney Interactive is one of the world’s largest creators of entertainment across current and digital media platforms. Current products include mobile and console games, online virtual worlds, and the Moms and Family network of websites.
Today, Disney is the second largest media cong...

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...ows. In addition, ESPN spent $9.2 billion for acquiring the NFL rights till 2008. This put a strain on profitability of the company.
Both ABC and ESPN improved their finances in 2000 to boost the profitability of the parent company. However, with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the economy was in a bad shape and by end of 2001, Disney suffered a loss of $158 million. This period was particularly bad for ABC, as the network saw dramatic decrease in its advertising rates.
Disney returned to profitability almost immediately through cost-cutting measures. Its CEO Eisner, however, was ousted and was replaced by Bob Iger who oversaw the company’s expansion internationally from 2004 onwards, especially into developing countries. During this period Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment, Pixar Animation, and UTV Software Communications paving its way into India.

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