Apple could buy Disney after pullback

[gatour]

I am curious. The land if Florida. Could a corporation buying Disney ever split that land up. It has to be worth more than the entire company in real assets.

Sure they can and Disney has been doing it for years. The Crossroads was originally Disney property. They de-annexed it from Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) and sold it off. The area around Little Lake Bryan (think the Vineland Premium Outlet mall area) was Disney owned. I think they still own a small portion that encompasses the Disney Cast Member "retreat" that they built years and year ago.

The town of Celebration was built on land owned by Disney. They de-annexed the land from RCID and built Celebration.

There are other examples.

The reason I mentioned RCID...Think of RCID as the 68th county in Florida. This was done so they can set their own building codes among other things. They have a board of "supervisors" that get elected by property owners. Disney deeds a token amount of land to a few people tied to the company. The people that now "own" the land vote as Disney see fits. Thus the need to de-annex property so they can still control the "county" that remains.

So if someone buys Disney and decides to sell off the Theme Park division. The buying entity can do whatever they want with the land.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

You are wrong. I bought my stock about 20 years ago, long after Walt died, and every year I get a "ballot" to vote my shares in regards to BOD directors, shareholder resolutions etc.

While I can't speak to Disney in specific, there are usually different classes of stocks. Class A, B, etc. they each can have different voting rights. I.E. Class A may have ten votes/per share of stock owned, while Class B may have 5 votes/per share, etc.

You really need to read up on Disney's financial history.

This is correct. Also in general, different classes of stock usually trade under a different symbol because they are usually worth different amounts of money. DIS (the common shares for The Disney Companies) has voting rights. There may be some special class shares that have the ability to cast more than one vote, that are generally not traded. However, the common stock most definitely does have the ability to vote on the Board of Directors and other major company concerns and there is enough of it that it could sway the direction of the company.

That said, as previously mentioned, MOST of the significant amounts of stock are held by institutions. Apple couldn't just log into e-trade* and buy enough shares to make a difference. They would have to wheel and deal, and that would take time. They could do it, but not without significant impact to their own stock and image. It's not very likely.

A merger would be more likely, but if Apple had any intent to acquire DIsney, there were better times than now which they have passed on.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

If anyone has the cash or availability of easy credit, it is amazon, not Apple.

 

[JayhawkCruiser]

If anyone has the cash or availability of easy credit, it is amazon, not Apple.

Amazon has a large cash flow and pumps most of their operating profit back into R&D. Just because their market cap is large doesn’t mean they’re in a position to buy a large company like Disney.

 

[dagored]

Apple has about $245 billion in cash. They could buy Disney if the so desire.

 

[OKW Lover]

If anyone has the cash or availability of easy credit, it is amazon, not Apple.

Apple is expected to use ~$100 Billion of its cash to repurchase its own shares.

 

[Hendlaw]

Apple is down to $192 Billion but that is not the issue. Any business will want to hold on to its liquidity because it needs it for operational reasons. That is why Disney has had to borrow so much. It has lots of fixed assets that bring it value, but with park closures and the movie industry hurting, it needs actual money to operate. This is an awful time to sell fixed assets as well as it is most certainly a buyer's market due to a lack of liquidity throughout the market when viewed through an operational lense.

 

[Jake]

Free I phones for all visitors to used for length of stay

 

[Fauntleroy]

It’s an interesting exercise- and likely nothing more- but if anyone could actually be a legitimate suitor for DIS someday- AAPL would be at the top or near the top of the list IMHO (i.e. Cash, Need for Content, and a shared institutional history via Iger/Jobs/Pixar).

At any rate, for the sake of some fun conjecture- could a future buyer w/o theme park operational expertise like AAPL- strike license deals with the Oriental Land Development Company (Tokyo DL) to run the rest of the parks? Not sure OLDC has those type of global ambitions- but just a thought...

 

[OKW Lover]

At any rate, for the sake of some fun conjecture- could a future buyer w/o theme park operational expertise like AAPL- strike license deals with the Oriental Land Development Company (Tokyo DL) to run the rest of the parks? Not sure OLDC has those type of global ambitions- but just a thought...

OK, just keeping in the "fun conjecture" vein, there would be no need to find some organization to run the parks. When a company buys another, they simply merge the organizations. The same people would still be there. Just the name on the paycheck would be different.

 

[Fauntleroy]

That’s a good point- particularly in a case like this w/no overlap (i.e. AAPL not coming in with an already existing theme park division). It’s definitely one of the synergies in the theoretical deal. Obviously, retention of the top DIS theme park talent would be critical though. Not uncommon in mergers for key personnel to bail after a year or two of “caretaking”/transition. Admittedly, this would be seemingly different though as not too many places for them to go outside of CMCSA (Universal)- and perhaps they have enforceable non-competes.

At any rate, just putting myself in the shoes of an AAPL Director (tell me where to sign!)- and the theme park biz would worry me (even pre-Covid). Having an “off ramp” to a reputable operator like OLDC would strike me as appealing.

 

[Fauntleroy]

PS Naturally, China would scream bloody murder about OLDC involvement in HK and Shanghai- so other JV Partners would he needed there. Would be more palatable in the US and FRA though IMHO- especially if the end experience was better (i.e. DL Tokyo quality).

Ok... I’m done. lol.