Disney stock prices dropped again today, with the price per share hitting its lowest since 2014.
Today, October 4, 2023, $DIS reached a new low price of $78.76 around 2:30 p.m. ET. At the time of press, the stock price has risen slightly to $79.42 per share. Disney’s stock price hasn’t been this low since February 7, 2014, when it was $75.67 per share.
Most recently, the stock saw a drop in price after The Walt Disney Company announced its plans to double spending on their theme parks and cruise line.
While it’s unclear just what could’ve caused yet another drop, notable events like the end of the WGA strike and negotiations to end the SAG-AFTRA strike could be related, as production prepares to resume in Hollywood on film and television projects.
Disney is set to hold its next earnings call on November 8, in which the company will discuss the full year and fourth quarter 2023 financial results, so it’s possible we could hear more related to this stock price drops on that call.
Disney suddenly fired hundreds of employees working in the company’s Beijing, China, office earlier this year, and now investors know why.
In March 2023, hundreds of Disney employees working in China were given the boot, but because the move came several weeks after The Walt Disney Company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings call, during which CEO Bob Iger divulged his plans for a massive $5.5 billion cost-cutting initiative, the layoffs didn’t raise many eyebrows.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Disney laid off more than 300 employees in the capital city of Beijing. The employees affected were involved in Disney’s streaming service. At the time, the layoffs were perceived as part of Disney’s forecasted $5.5 billion cost-cutting initiative and seen as more of CEO Bob Iger’s plan to cut costs by slashing more than 7,000 jobs within The Walt Disney Company.
During the earnings call, the need for such drastic changes within the company was so dire that the veteran CEO promised they would go into effect immediately. Disney’s President of Parks, Experiences, and Products, Josh D’Amaro, said the changes would be felt across the entire company, including at Disney’s U.S. theme park resorts.
Now, however, The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney dismissed hundreds of employees in its Beijing office as a way of saving face during an upcoming meeting with U.S. Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), who chairs a committee focused on the United States’ competition with China. The committee is also very interested in data privacy as it relates to that relationship.
Per The New York Post, Gallagher has been a “tenacious critic” as it pertains to data security and China’s potential access to American consumer data. The group of Disney employees that were excused had access to some of that data, according to those close to the situation, and Disney’s attorneys had reportedly been vocal about concerns about that access, saying it “could be seen as a potential red flag by the committee.”
Disney, however, denies that the layoffs were related to the meeting planned between CEO Bob Iger and Rep. Gallagher and maintains that the changes were part of Disney’s cost-cutting initiative, first outlined in the February earnings call.
According to a representative for The Walt Disney Company, “Disney’s decision to restructure and consolidate these operations was not motivated by data security vulnerability concerns.”
Disney has received a multi-billion-dollar offer from a media tycoon with a long history of successful acquisitions, and it’s not the tycoon’s first successful business venture with The Walt Disney Company.
Media tycoon Byron Allen, owner of Allen Media Group and Entertainment Studios and a leader in the media industry with a lucrative portfolio of assets and acquisitions, has made a bid to purchase a sector of The Walt Disney Company’s assets.
When Bob Iger returned to the helm at Disney in November 2022, replacing then-CEO Bob Chapek, he did so with a huge mission: to right the financial ship at the company.
Though Disney’s Parks, Experiences, and Products division, which includes Disney’s theme park resorts, has seen continued growth, the pressure is on as Disney’s streaming service–once forecast to be one of the company’s most lucrative and successful ventures–is tanking. Since the streamer first went live on November 12, 2019, Disney+ has yet to turn a profit, having lost more than $11 billion since its debut. In its most recent quarterly earnings report, The Walt Disney Company showed a loss of $512 million.
In July, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company is willing to sell some of its linear television assets in response to consumers’ growing trend of embracing streaming networks over the more traditional television and cable networks, and, in what Bloomberg described–fittingly–as a “Disney yard sale,” Iger reportedly listed approximately one-third of The Walt Disney Company’s intellectual properties, including some of Disney’s linear television assets, deemed noncore, or not essential for Disney’s growth, by the veteran CEO, such as ABC, FX, and Freeform.
As confirmed by his representative on CBS MoneyWatch, Byron Allen has offered to purchase Disney’s ABC television network, as well as the Disney-owned cable networks FX and National Geographic, for $10 billion. According to Bloomberg, the bid is only a “preliminary” offer and is subject to change at any time.
In 1993, Allen, a comedian, producer, media mogul, and philanthropist, founded the Los Angeles, California-based Entertainment Studios, a division of the Allen Media Group, a global media company. Allen’s enterprise has grown over the years, expanding to encompass offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Raleigh. Entertainment Studios currently owns one of the largest cable network portfolios industry-wide, as Allen has built a highly lucrative empire by adding to his portfolio with a series of acquisitions.
Allen’s company is the owner of ten of the country’s 24-hour HD television networks, including The Weather Channel, Justice Central, Comedy TV, Pets TV, and more. The group also sells advertising for 43 different broadcast and cable television programs and, per the company’s website, has “one of the largest libraries of family and advertiser-friendly lifestyle content in the world.”
In August 2019, Allen partnered personally with the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns and operates–or provides services for–nearly 200 television stations across 86 markets, to strike a deal with Disney. The $10.6 billion deal resulted in Allen’s acquisition of 21 regional sports networks from the Walt Disney/FOX group.
As of the time of this publication, Disney has not released a statement regarding the deal proposed by Byron Allen and Allen Media Group. But the company did respond to news that a definitive deal is in the works between Disney and Nexstar Media Group regarding linear television assets owned by the House of Mouse, with a statement that reads in part:
“While we are open to considering a variety of strategic options for our linear businesses, at this time, The Walt Disney Company has made no decision with respect to the divestiture of ABC or any other property, and any report to that effect is unfounded.”
Over Labor Day weekend, millions of cable viewers suddenly lost access to Disney-owned channels such as ABC, ESPN, and the Disney Channel. This is where Disney and Charter Spectrum’s dispute began.
The Walt Disney Company CEO, Robert Iger arrives for the World premiere of Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Endgame” at the Los Angeles Convention Center on April 22, 2019 in Los Angeles. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo credit should read VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
This blackout was caused when the Walt Disney Company and Charter Communications couldn’t reach an agreement, refusing to renew their deal regarding the distribution of content.
Customers subscribed to Charter Spectrum’s cable TV service found themselves unable to watch some highly impactful moments, such as the first weekend of this year’s college football season, which is typically regarded as one of the most-watched live TV events.
Many Charter Spectrum customers raced to cancel their subscriptions, finding only inconveniences and wait times of up to three hours, according to one report.
As the dispute continued, the Walt Disney Company and Charter Communications were seemingly at an impasse, each company blaming the other for the situation.
Meanwhile, millions of consumers found themselves unable to watch channels and events (such as upcoming Monday Night Football and Disney entertainment) that they had already paid for.
It’s easy to forget that Disney channels extend farther than the children’s Disney Channel programming; nowadays, the Walt Disney Company owns everything from National Geographic to ABC.
The two relayed in their joint statement:
Our collective goal has always been to build an innovative model for the future. This deal recognizes both the continued value of linear television and the growing popularity of streaming services while addressing the evolving needs of our consumers. We also want to thank our mutual customers for their patience this past week and are pleased that Spectrum viewers once again have access to Disney’s high-quality sports, news and entertainment programming, in time for Monday Night Football.
Now that the Walt Disney Company and Charter Communications have finally reached a new deal, some changes will be made in the coming months.
One of the most notable changes includes a new bundle: customers who purchase the Spectrum TV Select Package will earn the Disney+ Basic ad-supported option.
Not only that, but ESPN+ will also be provided to customers subscribing to Spectrum TV Select Plus.
Immediate changes include restored access to nearly 20 different Disney networks, including the Disney Channel, FX, the Nat Geo Channel, and “the full suite of ESPN networks.” However, some networks will no longer be available for Spectrum TV subscribers, such as Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, and Baby TV.
The long-running legal battle between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a new development. According to the New York Times, Disney has sent letters to the office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this week, stating that the company would pursue more lawsuits over the state not complying with public records requests.
Per the Times, Disney filed a motion this past Friday, September 1, 2023, to amend its federal suit to remove complaints specifically related to the development contracts for the former Reedy Creek Improvement District — which is what the state lawsuit against the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District covers — and leave Disney’s accusation that DeSantis violated the company’s First Amendment rights intact. The motion was denied later that day by Judge Allen Winsor in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee.
In that same motion, however, Disney disclosed that DeSantis and six other state entities had not complied with public records requests from May of this year, made by the company’s lawyers during the discovery process of both cases. This week, Disney mailed letters to the offices of DeSantis and the other state entities, “saying that the company would sue each under Florida’s public records act unless the requested materials were made available by Sept. 6.”
It has now been nearly four months since our request, and we have yet to receive any of the requested records or any substantive response asserting valid exemptions.”Adam Losey, Orlando lawyer working for Disney, as stated in one of the letters
Disney is asking for “all documents and communications, including but not limited to text messages, Signal messages, and WhatsApp messages on any devices” with the keywords “Disney” or “mouse,” among others, according to the letters.
This is the latest entry in the feud between Disney and DeSantis, coming just days after the revelation that Disney will be footing the bill on both sides of its lawsuit against CFTOD, who is suing the company in state court. DeSantis told CNBC back in August that he has “moved on” from his battles with The Walt Disney Company, and wants the whole issue to be dropped.
