No one is too big to fail - Disney

[McAvoy]

I doubt Disney will collapse to the point they have to be sold off like that. Or even collect a government bailout.

If anything I can honestly see them sell off one of their properties they bought. Like Star Wars, Marvel or even Fox.

I'd think they would want to keep Marvel since that is their huge money maker. Fox is still too new.

Star Wars could make sense. It has the potential to make some business alot of money if some serious thought was put into it. It's possible that Disney could view Star Wars as a damaged product at this point.

That's just my opinion.

[TGLS]

Well, the other thing I think about is that Disney has over 5 billion dollars in short-term investments and "walking around" cash. Surely enough to soak costs even if the interest rates remain high.

[clearspira]

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iJf50u5xdo&t=499s[/url]

So we now actually have some figures to work with.

Disney has posted a net loss of $4.72 billion in the last three months. This is compared to this time last year when it made $1.43 billion in net profit.

The revenue from Disney's parks have collapsed 85% to $983 million in the last three months compared to $1.72 billion this time last year. They are estimating a $3.5 billion hit to operating income in the parks alone.

Basically, Disney is haemorrhaging money. To put this another way, Wiki reckons that Avengers Infinity War has currently made $2.4 billion and Avengers Endgame has currently made $2.7 billion so in effect they have wiped clean the profits made from the two biggest films of our generation. In theory of course, if people start going to the parks again and go to the cinemas again then their profits will shoot back up. The question is when.

[GreyICE]

This is outright silly. Yes, Disney spent that money. And? They didn't take out loans to do so. They're not on the hook. Their Assets+equity is $280 billion. They could write off the parks tomorrow, sell the land, scrap the rides, and they'd be fine. It'd be a blow to their image and their brand, and they don't want to do it, but they're not in debt on the parks. There's no bank that's going to come calling.

If their revenue continues to be that negative, they will start doing things like just scrapping the parks. It'll hurt, but if they scrapped all the parks and became a straight entertainment company it wouldn't really hurt that badly. I'm sure they'd prefer to cut employees, because Disney views people as similar to toilet paper - cheap, disposable, to be covered in shit before discarding - but if push comes to shove they can cut the losses and not suffer because they don't have bank loans on those losses.

Wikipedia puts their operating income last year at $14 billion. That's fucking income. They can take a few "4 billion" hits.

[TGLS]

Well, besides that, the Parks and Resorts themselves make buttloads of money. Coronavirus smashing up the economy and making people stay away from crowds? No shit their profit will drop.

[Madner Kami]

sell the land

To whom? See, that's the funny part of capitalism: Things only have a worth, when someone wants it.

[GreyICE]

sell the land

To whom? See, that's the funny part of capitalism: Things only have a worth, when someone wants it.

I'm sure that land in California can find buyers, at a bare minimum. And if they scrap everything and close it, what are they paying? Not much. They could always spin the parks off and let them go bankrupt if they wanted to.

[Captain Crimson]

I always feel amused by the "made a billion dollars!" retort. I mean, it makes it a success, sure, but in a sterile business way. They want returns like TFA, and or EG did for them. TFA made more domestically than EG, so that is a substantial bleed-off.

Certain industries are more likely to take a pounding with COVID-19 such as the publishing industry, and they still don't wanna release new SWL novels, which many in the old EU fandom would eagerly gobble up. Rejected Mr. Karpyshyn when he's floated them potentially interesting story ideas, and you know what? His books would sell.

It's the corporate equivalent to that old phrase: "Biting your nose to spite your face." This is very sloppy business management, all-around.

"Star Wars fatigue" is the wrong word. Good stories sell, and always will. Nuking the EU for "creative freedom" and then going on to produce the most largely derivative rehash canon in reboot history didn't help their case, since many in the old guard saw through it, and stopped supporting the brand. In terms of side merchandising, the old continuity was far more engaging and interesting. That hasn't been the case since 2014. It's corporate fatigue, of all these bad business practices wearing on everyone now.

[clearspira]

sell the land

To whom? See, that's the funny part of capitalism: Things only have a worth, when someone wants it.

I'm sure that land in California can find buyers, at a bare minimum. And if they scrap everything and close it, what are they paying? Not much. They could always spin the parks off and let them go bankrupt if they wanted to.

So... The biggest entertainment and theme park corp in history to a company flogging its land to stay afloat in just three months.

That sounds like a fall to me. Disney will live but not in any way that someone in 2019 could gave predicted.

[GreyICE]

So... The biggest entertainment and theme park corp in history to a company flogging its land to stay afloat in just three months.

That sounds like a fall to me. Disney will live but not in any way that someone in 2019 could gave predicted.

Once upon a time Nintendo sold playing cards. They were the biggest playing card manufacturer in Japan, and one of the bigger playing card manufacturers in the world. They actually had an agreement with Disney to put Disney characters on Nintendo playing cards, which helped expand their brand into children, and gave them overseas purchase. If you told someone in 1970 that Nintendo got rid of playing cards, its primary business, they'd probably assume it's a shell of its former self - "oh, must be some defunct company with a few products that sticks around mostly for nostalgia."

Things change. Tourism was always at risk from global warming - flying those planes around is a carbon load that doesn't need to happen. With COVID accelerating things, will air travel ever return to what it used to be? Healthier for the planet if it doesn't. So call it optimism, but I'd love to see every cruise ship shut down, overseas flights incorporate carbon costs so they cost what they should (no more cheap air travel), and the resort industry wither a bit.

Will Disney die? Fuck no.