Walt Disney Company: Mass Media Conglomerate

Disney is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. It is one of the biggest media conglomerate because of its various owned cable shows, movies, publishing, internet, and music. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney. The current CEO of The Walt Disney Company now is Bob Iger, he was named president of Disney in 2000, and later succeeded Michael Eisner as chief executive. Disney uses its size and ownership to cross-promote its products across its various subsidiaries routinely.

Executive Summary: The entertainment industry holds the immense potential for growth and development. The industry is constantly evolving and Walt Disney emerge as a global leader and recognized as the world’s second largest media conglomerate in the terms of revenue after Comcast. The Walt Disney Company is a multinational entertainment conglomerate headquartered at California, United States. The company integrated its products into five target segments are as follows: (1) Media Networks (2) Parks and Resorts (3) Walt Disney Studios (4) Disney Consumer Products (5) Disney Interactive. The company has strong diversified product portfolios and generate high returns and revenues from all the target segments but the media networks contributes

Walt Disney is a worldwide entertainment company. Walt Disney Co is currently number one in the entertainment industry beating out competitors like News Corp, Time Warner, and CBS with revenues of $42,278 billion a year and a net income of $5.682 billion. The company is ranked number 66 on the Fortune 500 list and is ranked #17 on the World’s Most Valuable Brands List. Walt Disney’s headquarters are in Burbank, California and has been publicly traded as NYSE:DIS since 1991. Walt Disney began in 1923 with a short film called Alice’s Wonderland.

Disney is well known internationally to all ages for its magic and fun that has expanded from movies to merchandise to resorts and parks. With that being said, Disney gains a lot of revenue from these companies and products being sold. According to a private investor, Joshua Kennon, the Disney stock started in the 1950’s only at $13.88. Now, at about $77.00 per share, one should invest in the stock with their major successes that will only improve as the years go on. They had a great success with movies as in the Avengers (they now own Marvel) and recently the animation film, Frozen which improved to 41% more than the last year’s failure from the movie Lone Ranger or John Carter.

The Walt Disney Corporation is a large growth firm that we at Deutsche Bank believe to be a keystone company in the industry, where DIS is the world’s largest media corporation and has large upside potential. DIS is a diversified corporation containing different product segments such as media networks, parks, resorts, consumer products and studio entertainment. As Walt Disney Corporation’s first quarter reports of 2014 have been released, we are surprised by a higher than expected revenue and earnings per share, and we recommend that the common stock of Disney is a BUY for investors. Their 1Q14 report shows an increase in earnings per share reaching $1.04, which is up 27% year to year and 15% above first quarter estimates. Disney also reported revenue of $12.3B, which is up 9% year to year and also 1% above our estimates .

Disney’s parks are the most visited parks in the world. Walt Disney, the man behind the multi trillion-dollar company, made 635 films before he passed in 1966 at the age of 65. Walt left his make in this great nation owning major companies such as ESPN, ABC Entertainment, ABC News, Touchstone Television, A&E, and many more companies across television. Reasons for the Acquisition: One reason why we chose to purchase shares of stock from The Walt Disney Company was because they have a promising company that shows frequent growth and improvement. Each year Disney has an increase of visitors at its parks.

Five Forces Analysis Threat of New Entrants The problem that new entrants pose the Walt Disney Company depends on the potency of the barriers, and its response. This threat of new entrants to Walt Disney industry is very low since it has established itself with a significant dignity in filmmaking and media networks. The development of internet supply channels is making this less important with its immense and accessibility distribution prospects. Competition From Substitutes The high threat of substitute services and products is very probable and likely in this sector because of the innovations in other companies. The Walt Disney Company is making moves to expand and increase services presented to customers.

Walt Disney and Roy Disney started the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923, the name of the company evolved over time and is currently referred to as the Walt Disney Company. The company diversified its portfolio from family entertainment to media genres such as radio, music, theatre and online content. Disney prides itself as being the second largest media empire after Comcast, this is based on revenue analysis. It has evolved over the years to diversify into more mature content as compared to its initial focus on family based entertainment such as Mickey Mouse, Donald duck among others. The company’s headquarters are at Burbank, California.

Walt Disney is the largest media conglomerate in the world and rakes in billions in profits annually through its variety of media outlets. Through economic convergence, single companies, like Disney, have interests across and within many kinds of media. This ultimately limits the variety of perspectives being let out into the public. By having

“The Walt Disney Company 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.” (The walt disney, n.d.) At year end of 2013, the company had net revenues of $45 billion, up from $42.3 billion the previous year and net income of $6.1 billion, up from $5.7 billion the previous year. ("Walt disney co," 2014) Enterprise Risk Management Risk management is a way for firms to grow and create value. Enterprise risk management programs give organizations the tools they need to make quicker decisions with confidence. Steven Hunt, vice president of research at Forrester Research states, “It’s like driving a car: You can only go fast if you know you have good brakes.” (Buchanan, 2004) “As organizations develop their risk management processes, they can use those processes to consider the opportunity side of risk and use those processes to both protect and create value.” (Frigo & Anderson, 2014) The following will be an overview of The Walt Disney Company’s risk management practices. The People At The Walt Disney Company, they understand that the people are one of their biggest assets.