1. Sony Pictures Entertainment -- Given its recent financial hardships (especially after the resignation last week of CEO Michael Lynton), Sony would be a no-brainer for Disney to purchase--especially its TV and Film Divisions e.g. Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures & Sony Pictures Animation. 2. Metro Goldwyn Mayer -- MGM, as its known for short, would not be a surprise for Disney to purchase, considering Disney's Hollywood Studios was originally known as Disney-MGM Studios. 3. Castle Rock Entertainment -- Formed in 1987 by Rob Reiner, at present Castle Rock is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment (and before that, Turner Entertainment Company), but hey, one day Warner Bros. could sell Castle Rock Entertainment to Disney. Only time will tell. 4. 20th Century Fox -- Owned since 1986 by Rupert Murdoch, it would be interesting if Rupert Murdoch sold Fox to Disney--especially considering their TV divisions have in recent years co-produced together last year's short-lived "Grandfathered" (co-produced with ABC Studios by 20th Century Fox Television) & the current hit sitcom "Speechless" (likewise an ABC Studios/Fox Production). 5. YouTube -- Since 2006, YouTube has been owned by Google, Inc. But wouldn't be it interesting if Google sold YouTube to Disney? Hmm... Any thoughts on this? What companies would YOU like to see bought by Disney? Please reply below. Thanks.
Interesting indeed. It seems like a lot of them run parallel to existing areas within TWDC, so I'm not sure they need another live action film studio (for example). I would love to see Disney broaden their horizons in terms of what they produce (one of my biggest gripes with the company under Iger's control), but I don't think it's necessary to buy another company to do that. Wasn't Disney involved in some way with Castle Rock 15-20 years ago? Maybe it was just some distribution deal, but I thought there were ties between CR and Touchstone at one point YouTube would be interesting, and would definitely add something the company doesn't already have, but I'm not sure if it would fit their style. Disney is known for tightly controlling their messaging and content, so an open-ended user-based platform like that (or Twitter, as was rumored months ago) would be a huge departure for them
I can't see Disney buying any of the mentioned companies. Sony Pictures is a major studio in Hollywood and a take over would face anti trust investigations by the US government and by the European Union. Even the Lucasfilm take over lead to such investigations and needed the approval from the EU and the US government. And except for Spider-Man Sony doesn't have any viable franchises right now that might be interesting for Disney. James Bond is owned by EON Productions and the distribution rights are shared by MGM and Sony. Sony might even lose the distribution rights to 007 since the contract with EON and MGM expired after Spectre. Instead of buying MGM or Sony Pictures, Disney could also try to get the distribution rights for Bond and release the movies under Touchstone. For me the most interesting rumour was Disney buying Netflix. That would actually make sense, because it gives the company another distribution channel for the money printing franchises Disney already owns.
If you want to take it one step further, I heard a really interesting rumor (though I think it was mostly speculation) that Disney was looking into acquiring Netflix so they could take its CEO Reed Hastings and groom him to be Iger's replacement. It seems a little too crazy to believe, but it's an interesting thought!
I would like that, because there's also a rumour that Sheryl Sandberg, a Facebook executive, is in the lead to replace Iger.
