Company Address:
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
Phone Number: (818) 560-1000
Fax Number: (818) 560-1930
Company's lacation
via map
Main WebSite: Wonderful
World of Disney
According to Yahoo Finance,
The Walt Disney Company is a diversified worldwide entertainment company
with operations in four business segments: Media Networks, Parks and Resorts,
Studio Entertainment and Consumer Products. The Media Networks segment is
comprised of the Company's television and radio networks and includes cable/satellite
and international broadcast operations. It operates the Walt Disney World
Resort and Disney Cruise Line in Florida, the Disneyland Resort in California,
ESPN Zone facilities in several states and Anaheim Sports in California.
It also licenses the operations of the Tokyo Disneyland Resort in Japan and
licenses and manages the Disneyland Resort Paris in France. The Studio Entertainment
segment produces live-action and animated motion pictures, television animation
programs, musical recordings and live-stage plays. The Consumer Products
segment licenses Walt Disney characters and other intellectual property to
manufacturers, retailers, show promoters and publishers worldwide.
Annual Income: $24.5 billion
Number of Employees: 112,000
Ticker Symbol: DIS
Stock Exchange: NYSE
SEC
10-K
Current Stock Price
Current Stock Chart
Market
Cap
I feel that even though Walt Disney isn't releasing any big animated films
like in the old days, the company is still making more than enough through
its other companies to stay the force that it is in this economy.
In the wake of losing the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt came up
with what would be his most famous character ever, Mickey Mouse. With the
help of his chief animator Ub Iwerks, they both went on to design Mickey
and 2 animated cartoons starring the mouse. Due to the fact that these were
both silent films they were unable to sell these. After this Walt and Ub
designed a third film titled “Steamboat Willie”. One they added sound to
these cartoons they were easily sold and Mickey became an instant hit. Following
the success of the Mickey cartoons, Walt began producing Silly Symphonies
as well. These cartoons gave animators the ability to come up with other
storylines that didn’t have to include Mickey. It was the Silly Symphonies
that used color cartoons first.
In 1934, Walt informed his animators that they would start production on
what would become their first animated feature film, “Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs.” It took a long three years but the film was eventually completed.
Once released this movie became and hit and went on to become one of the
highest grossing films. Such classics as “Bambi”, “Fantasia”, “Dumbo”, and
the infamous “Pinocchio” followed suit, showing Walt the millions of dollars
that would be made in featured films. Financial problems because of World
War II cause production on future projects to take a little break. In the
early 1950’s, Disney began to once again have great success starting with
its first live action film “Treasure Island”, and returned to its animated
roots so to say with “Cinderella”. Also they went on to air their first television
show. This television show ran on all three major networks at the time, and
went through six title changes but would remain on air for almost 30 years.
In the mid- 1950’s, “The Mickey Mouse Club”, television’s most popular children’s
show debuted, instantly making stars out of the Mouseketeers. Never satisfied
with what he had, Walt wanted to evolve his company even more. Where he saw
his company headed was amusement parks. Fueled by memories of his childhood
trips with his father to amusement parks, he thought there should be a place
where parents could take their children so kids could experience the same
joy as did he. Thus he came up with the idea of Disneyland. After months
of planning and construction Disneyland was open to the public in the summer
of 1955. During the late 1950’s Walt Disney went on to release two more popular
films in “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” and “The Shaggy Dog”, and another
successful television show in “Zorro”.
The 1960’s brought about such technological advancements such as audio-animatronics,
used in the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and four shows during a festival
in New York. Then came what would be labeled as the culmination of all of
what Walt had learned in his film making career the movie, “Mary Poppins”.
The 60’s was a great decade for Disney but it also has its downside since
Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966. Under the guidance of Roy Disney and
with the plans Walt had left behind. Disney went on to show that it could
still function without Walt and pumped out such animated movies as “The Jungle
Book” and “The Aristocats”, also the highest grossing film of 1969 “The Love
Bug”.
After the success of Disneyland, Walt went on to purchase land on the east
coast in Florida, some of almost 30,000 acres. What would be known as Walt
Disney World was announced and opened its gates on October 1, 1971. This
was not only like its California counterpart but it was bigger and better.
It not only had an amusement park but also hotels, camp grounds, golf courses,
and shopping villages. It wasn’t long before Disney World began the biggest
vacation spot in the world. In late 1971 Roy Disney passed away, and
the company was then headed by a team including Card Walker, Donn Tatum,
and Ron Miller all who were trained by the Walt brothers. One of Walt’s last
visions was the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or EPCOT for
short. Although Walt wasn’t able to refine these plans before his death,
they were brought out to the public in the late 1970’s and the EPCOT center
was created and opened on October 1, 1982. This center was a combination
of future world and world showcase; it cost over a billion dollars to make.
But opened with great success, Along with the plans for the EPCOT center
plans were drawn up for the first foreign park that was named Tokyo Disneyland,
which opened on April 15, 1983, with great acclaim overseas.
During the 1980’s moviemaking went from more family based films to more mature
movies. Because of this Disney was not meeting the competition so they formed
a new label called Touchstone Pictures in 1984, and released the film “Splash”.
During the same period the stock value of Disney was low and two corporate
raiders looked to take over the company. These actions were halted when Michael
Eisner and Frank Wells took over as chairman and president respectively.
Under this new management Eisner and Wells saw news to maximize Disney’s
assets. In 1983 the company launched the Disney Channel, a pay-YV service.
This new management also wanted Disney to have a strong presence in network
television, so its Touchstone division launched the successful television
show “The Golden Girls” and then returned to Sunday nights with the Disney
Sunday Movie which was eventually changed to the Magical World of Disney
in 1986. Films from the Disney vault were selected for syndication viewing.
Some classics were released on VHS, and reached the all-time best sellers
list. While at Disneyland, new collaborations between filmmakers George Lucas
and Francis Coppola introduced Captain EO and Star Tours to the park, along
with the opening of Splash Mountain in 1989.
In the late 1980’s Disney’s filmmaking reached new highs. Disney for the
first time was the leader in Hollywood as far as box- office gross is concerned.
Over eight films passed the $100 million milestone some of them are, “Who
Framed Roger Rabbit”, “ Pretty Woman”, Dick Tracy” , etc. Moving into new
areas by starting Hollywood Pictures, Disney brought Wrather Corp. and a
radio station KHL, later renaming it to KCAL. Disney also acquired Childcraft
and opened over 200 Disney retail stores.
In the animated department Disney constantly outdid themselves, first with
“The Little Mermaid” being topped by “Beauty and the Beast” which was then
topped by “Aladdin” in 1992. Disney then moved into the music industry forming
Hollywood Records, offering music from rap to movie soundtracks. Expanding
their television presence Disney offered shows such as Home Improvement,
Dinosaurs, and Live with Regis and Kathy Lee. Stretching their limits even
more Disney formed the publishing company Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books
for Children, and Disney Press. In the early 1990’s Disney bought “Discover”
magazine, the leading consumer service monthly. In 1993 Disney was awarded
a NHL team in the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. In France the park Disneyland Paris
opened up and drew in over 10 million visitors in 1992. Animated film success
increased in 1994 with the release of one of the highest grossing films ever
with “The Lion King”. “Toy Story” helped pioneer computer animation techniques.
Also television success kept coming with “Aladdin” and the “Gargoyles”. By
1996 there were over 450 Disney stores worldwide. The new home sites in the
new city of Celebration, located next to Disney World. Over time more that
20,000 people will call Celebration their home. Arrangements are still being
made for Disney to buy a portion of the California Angels baseball team.
In 1996 Disney bought out Capital Cities/ABC, the 2nd largest transaction
in U.S. history, for $19 billion. This put together over 10 TV stations,
20 radio stations, 7 newspapers, and ownership of four cable networks.
For over 70 years Walt Disney has succeeded in making its name preeminent
in the family entertainment field. From a small cartoon studio in California
thus becoming to one of the largest media companies in the world if Walt
Disney could see it now.
A more complete
history
Walt Disney Timeline
Michael D. Eisner
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Age: 61 Salary:$764,423 and a bonus of $5 million. Since 1984 Eisner has
been Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Walt Disney. Eisner
started his career in 1976 when he was the Senior Vice President of Prime
Time Programming for ABC and was responsible for the development and supervision
of all prime-time series programming. He then left ABC and went to Paramount
Pictures in 1976 as the President and Chief Operating Officer and resided
there until he was hired at Disney.
Roy E. Disney
Vice Chairman of the Board
Age:73 Disney is the nephew of the late Walt Disney. He has been the Vice
Chairman of the Board of Directors since 1984. In November of 1985 Disney
became the head of the animation department for the Disney company. He also
holds the position as Chairman of the Board of Shamrock Holdings, Inc. a
real estate development and investment company.
Robert A. Iger
President and Chief Operating Officer
Age:52 Salary: $1 million Iger started his career in 1974 serving several
important positions at ABC. He was the President of ABC from 1993 to 1994
and President and Chief Operating Officer from 1994 to 1999. He joined the
Disney family in 2000 as the President and Chief Operating Officer. Iger
also serves on the Board of Trustees for Ithaca College, and is also on the
Board of Directors for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Art in New York
City.
Peter E. Murphy
Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Strategic Officer
Age: 77 Salary: $700,000 Murphy joined Disney in 1996 after his retirement
from ABC. He served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
of Capital Cities from 1966 t0 1990. He resumed the same position again in
1994 to 1996. Murphy is also the director of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.
and Doubleclick Inc.
Thomas O. Staggs
Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Louis M. Meisinger
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
More information on Officer
Although Walt Disney Company prides its self on moving forward the only real
plans for the near future is that of Disneyland Hong Kong. Which would be
the first Disneyland in China. The tenative opening for this park is 2005
or 2006.
Letters
to Shareholders
Walt Disney Company's Top Competitors:
Aol Time Warner
Viacom
NBC
Fox TV
Sony Pictures
Sony Music
Berelsmann
Gannett Co.
Vivendi Universal
News Corporation
On February
8th a ceremony was held at Disney's California Adventure to celebrate the
park's first birthday and announce two new attractions...
LPWire:
Registration Opens March 1 For 2004 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend ...
Disney Will Add
Logo to More Films to Expand Audience, WSJ Says
McDonald's
Strives to Regain Ground
Disney plans
new TV model
Other Sources of
Walt Disney News..
Adam (Sew) Sturm
March 2nd, 2003
