Does Disney Need To Make More Acquisitions?
In 2017 it was announced that 20th Century Fox had opened discussions to sell a majority of their assets, including the likes of Fox Searchlight, FX, National Geographic, and Hulu (30%), among other assets and their entire back catalogue of TV shows and movies.
In March 2019, Disney finalised its acquisition of 20th Century Fox, leading to even more mergers happening, the biggest ones being Viacom and CBS becoming ViacomCBS and Warnermedia and Discovery merging into Warner Brothers Discovery.
I’ve had many conversations with about half a dozen people on Twitter about how Disney could respond. I had companies like Toei Animation, Kyoto Animation, Sony Pictures, Square Enix, Marvist Entertainment, Lionsgate, A&E Networks, AMC Networks, ITV, DAZN and Studio Bones, these are just the “bigger” companies that get thrown around, so I guess you’re probably wondering, who should they acquire to compete?
Short answer, Nobody YET! Long answer, let me explain.
Reason #1: Disney Only Recently Swallowed 20th Century Fox
Let’s get the most obvious thing out of the way: Disney literally swallowed the fifth biggest film studio, giving Disney roughly 38% of the box office in 2019. Disney now has the likes of 20th Century Studios (previously 20th Century Fox) and Searchlight Pictures (previously Fox Searchlight Pictures) creating films alongside the other Walt Disney Studios like Pixar, Marvel, Disney Animation and Lucasfilm.
Disney spent over 71 BILLION dollars to acquire those assets alongside Fox’s vast film and television library, which included hit shows like “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, and “The Resident”, among so many others and films like “Alien”, “Predator”, “Deadpool”, “Planet Of The Apes”, “Home Alone” and “The Greatest Showman”.
Reason #2: Disney Is The King Of Content
This is another big reason why Disney DOES NOT need to make another acquisition. Disney owns hit children’s and teen film franchises like “Frozen”, “Toy Story”, “The Mighty Ducks”, and “High School Musical”, all of which have had new additions to their respective franchises in the form of Disney+ Originals. Disney also owns maturer franchises, including “Alien”, “Die Hard”, “Predator”, “Planet Of The Apes”, and “Kingsman”.
Beyond films, Disney runs successful US TV channels like ABC, FX, Freeform and the Disney Channels, which all create their own original content. Disney also owns Disney+ which has had hit shows like “The Mandalorian”, “Wandavision”, and “Falcon And The Winter Solider”. These shows took over pop culture and are based on Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars franchises.
Reason #3: Legal Interference
Now for the final reason, and this one is rather obvious, the Disney-Fox merger was met with a lot of backlash within the US government after it was approved, as many thought it would create a monopoly, (Disney only owns 38% of the market, which is below the majority of 50%+, so Disney is NOT a Monopoly).
Disney would NOT legally be allowed to purchase Sony Pictures, Disney also tried to buy the remaining shares of A&E Networks, but that purchase was blocked due to monopolistic concerns.
If Disney did acquire another film or television studio, expect it to be one that is going out of business, and Disney is merely “rescuing” the IPs of that company. If Disney decides to acquire a game studio or an anime studio, there’s not much they can do to be successful unless they buy someone who is already one of the biggest names in those industries.
Whilst I do think there would be some positives to being bought out by Disney, like your back catalogue of TV and movies added to Disney+ or Hulu/Star, I feel like their’s more negatives than positives, and I DO NOT think they need to acquire anyone at least for the next year or two, even then it wouldn’t be and shouldn’t be another giant company.
Anyways, what do you think? Do you think Disney needs to acquire another company, or are they already big enough?
