Over on the West Coast, the Walt Disney Co. is preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Disney Land.
But elsewhere, analysts predict Disney’s efforts to rebound from its massive losses in 2022 will include shedding two of its most high-profile properties.
Market analysts with Wells Fargo predicted last week that Disney would sell off ESPN and ABC as part of an effort to pull its franchise out of the current nose dive.
As The Free Press reported on Sunday, Disney’s stock price plunged 45% in 2022.
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Disney, whose stock reached a record price of $202 a share just 22 months ago, closed on Friday at $87 a share.
That’s the lowest price for Disney’s stock since at least 2014, excluding the pandemic years.
“Spinning off the two networks is the best path forward and a probable late 2023 event, leaving the Walt Disney Company an attractive pure play intellectual property company,” Fox Business Network reported.
Disney will do so in order to “shift the mass media and entertainment company’s focus to content and cost rationalization.”
ESPN has been a moneymaker for Disney, but like the cable TV industry at large, it has been losing subscribers, as much as 10% a year in recent years.
Meanwhile, as Breitbart News, which also reported on the analysis by Wells Fargo, noted, ABC has now slipped behind Fox News in prime-time viewership.
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“This is an unheard of success for a cable network considering that the big three TV networks — CBS, NBC, and ABC — were once the unchallenged kings of television broadcasting,” Breitbart noted.
Disney will have to make a major step to reverse its fortunes; as The Free Press reported on Sunday, the company’s value declined by $123 billion in 2022.
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