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Will Disney make a major acquistion in 2015....
- Thread starter EdReedFan20
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funkystudent
Member
Maybe they will buy something completely random and almost not related.
What would be their "facebook buys Oculus" for example?
Maybe they buy a mobile phone / tablet company and get into that stuff. HTC?
Just out of curiosity I looked that up.
Lucasfilm was sold for $4.05bn. Marvel was $4 billion as well.
Nintendo has $4.5 billion in cash and deposits saved up. So Yeah.... it would probably cost a heck of a lot more then Lucasfim.
Also 4 billion for Marvel and again for Star Wars makes that 2.5 billion MS paid for Minecraft seem nuts. Like Disney got a amazing deal on those two or MS way overpaid.
What would be their "facebook buys Oculus" for example?
Maybe they buy a mobile phone / tablet company and get into that stuff. HTC?
Just out of curiosity I looked that up.
Lucasfilm was sold for $4.05bn. Marvel was $4 billion as well.
Nintendo has $4.5 billion in cash and deposits saved up. So Yeah.... it would probably cost a heck of a lot more then Lucasfim.
Also 4 billion for Marvel and again for Star Wars makes that 2.5 billion MS paid for Minecraft seem nuts. Like Disney got a amazing deal on those two or MS way overpaid.
Microsoft making a bad decision? Imagine that.
Mysterious
Banned
Ghibli is probably less expensive. Of the Japanese companies, it's the best bet.
BronsonLee
Member
The Marvel deal seems fucking ridiculous now, but back then not so much. Then Avengers hit.
Lucasarts was a good deal because Lucas just wanted out, but wanted it to continue.
Minecraft was a normal business deal. Startups get bought for that kind of money from time to time.
RE: Ghibli, there's a pre-existing relationship there. So it's not just an outsider.
Lucasarts was a good deal because Lucas just wanted out, but wanted it to continue.
Minecraft was a normal business deal. Startups get bought for that kind of money from time to time.
RE: Ghibli, there's a pre-existing relationship there. So it's not just an outsider.
FireAndBlood
Member
These acquisitions all have something in common. Disney gains IPs and these properties all have synergy with Disney's existing assets. Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm have assets that can be used with theme parks, film, television, and merchandise.
Also they bought companies that improved in areas Disney lacked. The Pixar acquisition improved their animation studio. And Marvel was to improve their market with boys. They dominated girls with their princesses, but boys had little interest in Disney products.
They would never buy Ghibi. Anime is dead outside of Japan. 2d animation in general is at that. There is pretty much no western audience for it anymore. Early 00s? I could see it then yeah. But not now. Non-Japanese people aren't interested in anime anymore. The fad is over. Would be a waste of money.
They want something they could make money on. They won't make money in the west with anime movies
They want something they could make money on. They won't make money in the west with anime movies
When was the last time Disney ruined a studio they acquired? Pixar operates as they did when they were independent. Marvel has went from being #2 on a niche market to being arguably the top brand on cinema. It remains to be seen how quality their output with Star Wars (and the other Lucasfilm franchises) is, but the signs are nothing but good so far.
An acquisition like Studio Ghibli would target a specific genre and audience, and it would be pointless to rebuild it under different principles. They can be profitable, even if they don't do Marvel or Walt Disney canon numbers. Meanwhile, they add an essential product line in their repertoire and Disney would lose nothing.
Agreed for most situations. The different here is that if not for someone like Disney, it is almost certain that Ghibli will either go down, or become a shadow of its former self. I think Miyazaki and Takahata would be more than glad to leave Ghibli into good hands rather than let it die out. They might step down from active roles, but nothing says they wouldn't supervise a well-directed "Neo-Ghibli" if a good opportunity arose. And I'm sure a movie that follows Ghibli's principles could be made by other people.
Think of it this way: can a Mario game be made by someone other than Miyamoto? Can a Nintendo game be made by a studio not radically built from and composed of Nintendo? The answer to both questions is yes, because Miyamoto's method and philosophy, and Nintendo's genre compose a school of thought, and "Nintendo" is largely defined by this fundamental set of ideas. Talented individuals, under the right environment can follow them and indeed create Nintendo games. Studio Ghibli is equally distinct and their methodology can be decoded and used by a new generation of animators.
Agreed. 'Spirited Away', by far Ghibi's most acclaimed and profitable film in the US, made a little over 270 million ww, 10 million in the U.S.
What audience do they get with Ghibi? Outside of Japan their movies appeal to a very small niche now. 2D animation and anime especially is dead everywhere in the west.
Why buy an anime company when anime has no appeal in every market that matters to Disney?
GAF may still care about anime but no one else does. There is no money to be made there.
Why buy an anime company when anime has no appeal in every market that matters to Disney?
GAF may still care about anime but no one else does. There is no money to be made there.
They're games division had always been weak. Acquiring EA would help with that.
Also, EA had an exclusive deal with the NFL (Madden and College Football). The NFL has an exclusive deal with ABC/ESPN for Monday Night Football.
Makes perfect sense.
FaustsBoon
Member
I know it isn't "major" to most of you, but I would LOVE for them to buy the ailing "Games Workshop".
Use their "Disney Store" infra-structure to save the brick and mortar shops, while using their brands like Star Wars, to create some incredible, industry-shaking, table-top experiences.
Use their "Disney Store" infra-structure to save the brick and mortar shops, while using their brands like Star Wars, to create some incredible, industry-shaking, table-top experiences.
Escape Goat
Member
But Disney isn't a video game studio. They make movies and leverage those franchises through merchandising and toys.
Mysterious
Banned
Expense wasn't your argument; it was the willingness of the Japanese government to allow a sell-off of a Japanese company.
Bg companies like Disney aren't in the business of saving fading companies. They buy companies that are growing and help the bottom line.
Can Disney even fit more IP into a yearly schedule of Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar etc ?
There can also be more toys I suppose but Lego is massive now, licensing must be way cheaper and doesn't involve knocking back competitors that Lego is involved with.
They washed their hands of gaming but you never know, maybe haven't found the right thing.
There can also be more toys I suppose but Lego is massive now, licensing must be way cheaper and doesn't involve knocking back competitors that Lego is involved with.
They washed their hands of gaming but you never know, maybe haven't found the right thing.
Because it's the truth?
Not a major adquisition.
Ghibli doesn't produce "anime" -- they don't target the traditional anime audience. They produce quality animation and stories with universal appeal and they happen to be in Japan. I agree that a certain fad has passed, which is why we haven't seen traditional animation back in western theatres for a few years now, but there is a potential for growth in the area, especially in the absence of meaningful competition these days. Don't forget that Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle had very little marketing in the west, and they were screened in a relatively limited number of theatres (less than 40 for both).
Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that Ghibli can become the next MCU in terms of box office. But they can be very profitable and give Disney a ticket for a field they currently don't play in. They wouldn't be a major acquisition in terms of a short-term benefit gain, but as far as prestige and variety is concerned, they have a lot to offer.
It comes from the same place where people feel that Nintendo will exit the gaming industry before Microsoft and Sony. Completely and willfully at times ignoring the issues those companies are having, especially all other divisions of Sony that aren't insurance and playstation based. Where people like to ignore that unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo has no debt and a ton of cash in the bank even with the Wii U's troubles. This might might have changed over the year but I believe at the beginning of 2014 it was said the Nintendo was worth more then all of Sony. Not just PlayStation but Sony worldwide due to it's problems. People should stop and think about that. That's why I say it would cost a lot, maybe not insane, amount of money and that's possibly to begin talks. Nintendo is not going to be sold for cheap if it ever even came to that.
Nintendo is not a likely possibility here and any suggestion of it is, is one wishing for something unlikely to happen. Disney also doesn't even care about making video games and Nintendo is one of the largest and most successful. They have no reason to buy them especially when the success of Nintendo's IPs are game based.
It's kind of crazy to think that Nintendo had enough money to theoretically purchase Marvel or Lucasfilm. That's mind bending.
2D animation does not have universal appeal. You can market it however you want but no one is interested. That has been proven time and time again the past 5 years. Disney axed their 2D division for a reason.
FaustsBoon
Member
Fair, but throughout Europe in particular, the Warhammer brand has genuine value, and there is synergy in terms of using game-design expertise in tandem with IPs that Disney could leverage.
Like I said... it wouldn't be their "big" acquisition, but it would still be a pretty exciting one. Plus, given the right stewardship, the Warhammer 40k fiction could be a big third-pillar, sci-fi series of movies, etc...
Disney bought ABC & ESPN for $19B, so money isn't the issue. The question is whether Nintendo is as valuable as ABC & ESPN for Disney. Since ESPN by itself is worth about $40B right now, I really doubt it.
This is exactly right. The only proper way to look at this scenario is from a business perspective. If an acquisition doesn't synergize with what Disney is already doing, then they'll probably avoid it.
Look at the production credits for Nintendo's recent games: Miyamoto isn't given very many major producer or director credits because most of that work is being done by other people. This would be the way it works with many animated features, but it's explicitly not the case with Ghibli. In particular, Miyazaki is known for being extremely hands on at every stage of the production process. He'll even go all the way to drawing key frames. The major problem with this approach has always been that he's such an integral part of Ghibli films that he doesn't leave enough room for new talent to replace him.
There's also return on investment to take into account too. They spent 19 billion on ABC because they knew they'd get that 19 billion back pretty quickly, so it was a smart investment. As you said, ESPN alone is worth double what they spent on ABC/ESPN. Same with LucasFilm, that 4 billion they spent is going to get made back after Episode 7 hits theaters and all of the merchandising the franchise has comes into play.
If Nintendo is sitting on 4.5 billion right now on their own Nintendo would obviously have to up the ante in order to get Nintendo to bite. Lets just throw out 6-8 billion as a number here. I don't know if Disney would consider that a smart investment since it would take a good long time to get that return.
Yeah, I know but if you've been following them you would know that they've been trying to fix this part of the business for years. The quick fix would be through M&A.
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
Who said anything about buying Nintendo to make games? There's a hell of a lot of untapped media potential for Nintendo's IP catalog that they've refused to exploit, and you know that studios like EA and Ubi would pay out the ass to use the Mario IP.
You're exactly right. Miyazaki never assumed supervisor positions, and this is precisely why Ghibli has "paused" operations now. But Miyamoto was also a hands-on person, until he became a supervisor. And after he took a more "big picture" role, Nintendo continued to produce games that felt consistent with Nintendo's genre. Who's to say this approach can't be followed in Ghibli moving forward? If Miyazaki is still passionate and able, he can offer guidance to new Ghiblers if there is someone like Disney on the business side.
ITT I learned Nintendo is open to mergers and acquisitions. I can't believe I missed that news from almost a year ago. No doubt they have been in talks with other companies, but I doubt Disney is one of them.
As for Disney acquisitions in 2015, I'd be surprised if they don't make some technology acquisitions for interactive entertainment. It's fun to imagine what they could do with AR glasses in their parks and with their toys.
As for Disney acquisitions in 2015, I'd be surprised if they don't make some technology acquisitions for interactive entertainment. It's fun to imagine what they could do with AR glasses in their parks and with their toys.
Disney releases fewer films per year than any other major studio. The main reason why it doesn't always feel this way is because their films have a higher chance of being a tentpole release, and thus the ones people pay attention to.
Nintendo wouldn't be able to shell out the $150-200M per film that Disney is willing to spend. Would you want them to make 6-10 fewer games per year?
If you want to make proper Warhammer films, then they would have to be R-Rated. R-Rated films aren't the kind of tentpoles that Disney is interested in, so I don't think this is feasible. The other drawback is that it would put Disney in the business of making models and games, and I don't think they want to take the company in that direction. Otherwise, this is one of the more suggestions in this thread!
EXACTLY. I think a lot of people in here talking about Disney haven't been paying that much attention to disney. They tried to make Spectrobes a thing. They traded a human being for a cartoon character to make Epic Mickey a thing. And it's not like Marvel fell to pieces after acquisition. Buying/merging Nintendo would be a solid move for them and really tie up the preteen to younger teen male market.
Disney wouldn't be acquiring a video game publisher to make games.
The purpose of M&A is increase your bottom line and to take advantage of possible business synergies.
Then why exactly would they buy them ?
Movies ? Lol
Toys ? Not worth it
Rides ? Extra 50 million just to make a ride.
EdReedFan20
Member
I wonder, if they could only pick between two toy companies, Lego or Hasbro, which would they pick? I would guess Hasbro since it has so many brands within it. Imagine them buying both and making them one toy company.
Escape Goat
Member
You don't "fix" this part of your business if your core competencies lie in a whole other sector. Disney would no sooner buy a video game developer than Apple would buy K Mart.
BigJonsson
Member
Space travel?
Your point about the return on investment is well noted, but it probably has more to do with how Nintendo hasn't been very healthy lately. If Disney had an idea of how to make Nintendo work really well, then they would jump at it with little regard to Nintendo's asking price.
By the way, Nintendo's money in the bank won't do much to affect the effective price. If Nintendo had $4B in cash and Disney bought them for $12B, then Disney now controls that $4B cash. In effect, Disney would have just paid $8B for Nintendo.
They're not really trying to get into the video game business in any major way. They're just looking at further opportunities to leverage their existing IPs. That's why something like Infinity is right up their alley.
Ghibli doesn't have the talent right now. They've been trying to groom Goro Miyazaki, but while it hasn't been a complete failure, he's not going to be able to shoulder all of Ghibli by himself.
Disney already has that market. Go check your local toy store and just see how strong Disney's presence is in the boys' aisles. Nintendo is only a fraction of a fraction of that. It's really telling to see how little Nintendo seems to matter to children nowadays.
Black Republican
Member
80% certain itll be WB
Part of me thinks they will attempt to get X-Men/Fantastic Four/Spider-Man film rights back. I'm doubtful they'll have much luck with the ones over at Fox.
As for new acquisitions, I'm not sure what's left for Disney to go after. They have quite a bit of grounds covered already with the studios they currently have.
As for new acquisitions, I'm not sure what's left for Disney to go after. They have quite a bit of grounds covered already with the studios they currently have.
I disagree.
The purpose of the Marvel and LucusFilm purchase wasn't just to add two hot money making companies to their portfolio. It was also to grab a share of the male preteen to teenage demographic. Adding another audience (the core gamer) to "fill in the gaps" will help them add to their growing market share.
I also forgot to mention EA has a non-exclusive deal with the NBA (Disney has a broadcasting deal with the NBA).
Also, EA recently signed a deal with Disney for exclusive rights to develop and publish Star Wars video games.
You're right...for now. They did layoff a bunch of people a few months ago.
darkhunger
Member
No one values a company based on how much money they have in the bank. Try starting with their market cap which is around $13-15b and go up from there.
Magical Girls and Princesses? We'd all be fucked.
HarryDemeanor
Member
North Korea.
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