The Coronavirus has taken a toll on all entertainment corporations, even mega giants like Disney. Their latest animated effort Onward tanked at the box office due to the incoming closure of theaters (had an unprecedented 73% drop from its first weekend), while upcoming projects like Mulan and New Mutants had to be delayed indefinitely. With these losses in profits, Disney’s stock has dropped below $100 per stock, leaving the door open for a tech company like Apple to make a game-changing move.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Rosenblatt Securities analyst Bernie McTernan about Apple’s potential to purchase Disney and its assets during these ever-changing times:
“We believe those with long-time horizons, like mega-cap companies with large cash balances and whose equity outperformed Disney over the last three weeks, like Apple, could take advantage of the volatility (noting that Disney’s market capitalization was approximately $165 billion, while Apple has about $107 billion in cash and securities). The upside from acquiring Disney would be securing their content/streaming strategy and potential synergies from adding the emerging Disney ecosystem to the iOS platform.”
This would be a truly insane move, as Disney has spent the last decade or so growing into the largest power in cinema. With the acquisitions of Marvel and Star Wars, they positioned themselves as the top dog, with a whopping eight films of theirs finishing in the top 10 domestically last year (they had each of the first 8). Apple on the other hand is still trying to establish itself in the Hollywood industry, with Apple+ having mixed results in its first few months of operation (one of their first major films The Banker comes out on Friday).
While this is still unlikely to happen, it’s telling how much of an impact that the Coronavirus has had on all industries if a business move like this was possible.
How would you feel if Apple bought Disney? Let us know in the comments!