Who should run Disney... in your opinion

[Stitch]

Wow...That's about as big if not bigger then News Corp. And I thought Rupert owned a lot of stuff!

[Jiminy Cricket]

Wow...That's about as big if not bigger then News Corp. And I thought Rupert owned a lot of stuff!

Disney is worth about $70,340,000,000 give or take a dollar or two. They had revenue of about $30,400,000,000 last year, which means my DW and I gave Disney 0.00000006578% of their revenue last year--give or take a billionth of a percent or two! Disney paid about $2,000,000 in income taxes--about 0.006% Woo hoo!

[jarmitc2032]

That's amazing since they started with so little

[Stitch]

That's amazing since they started with so little

Yeah, like a mouse. :mickey:

[Melrose1330]

That was cute Stitch! I think Roy would be the best person to run Disney. Who could possibly know more about Walt's dream and the magic of Disney than a fellow Disney? He has so much passion for the magic that is Disney and feels the same way about most of the things that have changed the face of Disney as the fans do. Vote Disney in 2005!

[jarmitc2032]

Yeah, like a mouse. :mickey:

I'm amazed that people don't say "It all started with Alice."

[Pacha]

That was cute Stitch! I think Roy would be the best person to run Disney. Who could possibly know more about Walt's dream and the magic of Disney than a fellow Disney? He has so much passion for the magic that is Disney and feels the same way about most of the things that have changed the face of Disney as the fans do. Vote Disney in 2005!

Not so sure he wants to run Disney and with all due respect to Roy, he's getting on in years and probably couldn't handle an extremely stressful, demanding job like that. I could definitely see him as an advisor to the CEO of Disney. Nice thought though Melrose!!

[jarmitc2032]

Not so sure he wants to run Disney and with all due respect to Roy, he's getting on in years and probably couldn't handle an extremely stressful, demanding job like that. I could definitely see him as an advisor to the CEO of Disney. Nice thought though Melrose!!

In the old days Walt and his brother had about the same amount of power in company. The company should go back to the old ways where two people have the control instead of one.

[Mark Goldhaber]

I think it has to do with the (guess what political party?) billionaire oilmen the Bass brothers of Texas (bought 25% of Disney stock in 1984 when the company was in dire straits and then made their boy Mikey Eisner CEO. Their friends in Congress passed the telecommunications bill that lead/greased the way to the merger of Disney and Capital Cities/ABC). They still own billions of dollars of Disney stock.

Whenever a company decides to go public it is subject to takeover and/or being sold if a majority of the stockholders thinks it is best for the company (and their wallets). Of course, this can be avoided if a company decides to stay private a la the Mars Candy company. Uncle Roy and the rest of the Disney family owns billions of $$$ of Disney stock, but do not own a majority of it. That fact was one of the bones of contention in the battle between Uncle Roy and Mikey Eisner in that Mikey did not grow the stock value for many years and as a result the Disney family lost millions and millions of dollars in stock value. However, the company has turned around and all the millions lost have been recouped many times over. The fight now is about the direction The Disney Co. should go, and not about money per se.

Actually, Roy helped lead the charge to bring Michael Eisner and Frank Wells in to run the company. However, he grew increasingly disenchanted with Michael, and when he found out that he was going to be forced to retire from the board, he quit instead, along with Stanley Gold, and started the whole SaveDisney thing. (Read the books "Storming the Magic Kingdom" and "DisneyWar" for more info.)

The Bass brothers sold a huge chunk of their holdings in the company in 2001 when they needed the money. They still have some stake, I believe, but the largest current shareholders are several pension funds and investment funds.

[jarmitc2032]

I thought the disney family had the largest stock in the company

[Mark Goldhaber]

I believe that Roy Disney is the largest individual shareholder and the 18th-largest overall shareholder. Michael Eisner is the number 2 individual shareholder, 26th overall. The largest shareholder is Barclay's Global Investors, with a 3.5% stake. Funds such as CALPERS, NYSERS, and several commercial funds have a large stake as well. Investment funds hold about 19% of Disney, overall. The rest is mixed between large and small investors.

[jarmitc2032]

I wonder how the disney family lost so much power over there company.

[Tampa]

Earth is alot bigger than the happiest place on it.

I'm very disappointed that any big oil company has any stakes. That's sad news and it shows me further, we're doomed. In other words, they run EVERYTHING.

[jarmitc2032]

At least we all can meet in the big Haunted Masion in the sky.