Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer ^ I'd rather have passion. At least you'd get SOME good things out of it.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<>>Anyone see him? Anyone know someone who did? Pics?<< I would be most interested in concrete proof, either direction.>> As I said earlier, I've gotten no indication from friends at DAK that he was there. They had no idea.
Originally Posted By MousDad So basically, either a certain webmaster posted bad info, or Iger's making very secretive, well-concealed trips to the parks. The first - funny. The second - provocative.
Originally Posted By njDizfan sorry to derail or go backwards here, but our little fanboy initiative kind of let our MAGICal admin know, in a very subtle way, that we know that something doesn't seem quite right about this Iger visit. Will be up and running soon
Originally Posted By Bolna <<I'd love even more questions.>> What about this one: What would TWDC going to do with the cash they would generate from selling off the parks? Surely they would try to invest it somewhere else - so what would they want to buy?
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer ^ Assuming Iger and Co. didn't get most of the revenue from the deal...
Originally Posted By Bolna <<^ Assuming Iger and Co. didn't get most of the revenue from the deal...>> They might get a very nice bonus, but the proceeds of the sale would go into TWDC's account. Which brings up another interesting question: What is the value of the Parks & Resort division? What kind of price could they ask for it?
Originally Posted By dagobert If TWDC sells the themepark division, wouldn't the buyer burden the money they paid for it on the new company that will run the parks? Didn't the Sony led consortuim do the same thing when they purchased MGM a few years ago? Then we would have the same problem Euro Disney SCA is facing? SO I think the only possibility is to spin off the division, but keep the majority of the stakes.
Originally Posted By Bolna <<If TWDC sells the themepark division, wouldn't the buyer burden the money they paid for it on the new company that will run the parks? Didn't the Sony led consortuim do the same thing when they purchased MGM a few years ago?>> Yes, I think I mentioned that concern before as well. Of course if the buyer had a lot of cash lying around things would be fine. But generally deals like that are financed and the assets bought are used as security for the loan. And I don't like the idea of a theme park burdened with debt for exactly the same reason you mentioned, dagobert: DLP is a frightening example for a scenario like this.
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Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Stop the presses!!! Another site, as we have noted here, put word out to its pixie-dusted fan community that Bob Iger made an unannounced appearance at DAK. Allegedly, he was touring the park with DAK's VP and other (unnamed) notables from Disney. Only, this is anything but what it appears to be. And what does it very much appear to be? A lie. Propagated by Social Media in its most vile, corrupted and troubling form. Seemingly and strategically positioned as nothing but pure propaganda meant to 'fire-up-the-base' of WDW's most loving fans. Fans for whom Disney can do no wrong ... only, of late, even these folks have come to realize Disney isn't doing Disney the Disney Way. They have started a fan-based initiative to say 'we're here and we're ... very much aware of what you are doing and what you're not'. That's not good for any company, much less TWDC. What to do? ... What to do? I know, just have someone feed the most pro-Disney website's administrator a line about the Big Cheese's boss himself, AKA The Weatherman, coming to town and heading right for Disco Yeti. That'll get the fans talking ... And the focus off of everything else happening in the Walmarted World of Disney. You know, I heard today that MySpace was sold for six cents on the dollar to a group 'led by' Justin Timberlake. Wasn't MySpace the next big thing? Didn't HUGE media companies spar over getting this one just a little more than a few years ago? Wasn't MySpace the new and everlasting frontier of Social Media? Yeah right, this is what happens when companies enter something organic, something pure ... born of individuals reaching out to other individuals. When companies corporatize and monetize 'personal' relationships, connections, perceived likes and perceived dislikes. Hey, anybody else notice how much corporate clutter is on your personal Facebook wall? That's OK. When I wanted that one-time free chicken sandwich and I 'liked' you, I knew it was the one relationship that would last ... forever. Mmm ... chicken ... But really, a company coming in and poisoning the community of its most dedicated fans to shift the focus off of legitimate concerns about that company's product, that's just so, so wrong. In some contexts, it might even be criminal. Now, I said, stop the presses!!! Really folks, it IS that important. Unless someone's got a picture with Bob and their family in front of Pizzafari this week ... c'mon, anyone?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 My young (but older today) buddy, EE, asked about if Disney were to sell P&R who might be lining up to buy. ... The queue would be shorter than the Treehouse (insert your own joke about WDW's typical guests not being able to walk up the plastic tree here!) You need to look at things thusly: TWDC has many things going for it, unfortunately, one of the things that makes it so attractive is the value of its business units as largely autonomous entities (that means by themselves). Or, put another way, Disney is now worth more in parts than as a whole. (Cue Gordon Gekko and the 'Greed is Good' speech.) Prime among those assets would be the perceived value of P&R. But, do not confuse them with the rest of TWDC. They represent one unit of a very big, very diverse media conglomerate. Disney is more than parks, no matter how much you/me/we may love them. That unit that has come to be viewed as a liability by the power structure at TWDC and, more importantly, Wall Street. How many times have you heard that 'parks are a terrible business' right after you came back from your $8,000 MAGICal WDW vacation? ;-) There exists no reason for the media company Disney and the parks company Disney to remain in an increasingly dysfunctional and ultimately destructive relationship. For there comes a time when you've cut the fat away, leaned the muscle, and begun to hit the bone (I said they reached this point in the USA parks a decade ago now)... and then, inevitably, infection sets in. Your only choice? Amputation. Or, here, removing the division, the part of the company you have diseased through a systematic plundering of its underlying brand power. Only, where is the buyer? Who is the buyer? Who out there would invest in this kind of a product? Nobody seems keen on investing in TWDC's P&R, perhaps (at least partially) because Disney failed for years to make the right investments in P&R itself. Still, two potentially interested 'parties' came to mind when I came to terms with the reality that TWDC has indeed shopped P&R. Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. And the People's Republic of China.
