I’m not saying I know better than Daniel Loeb and his hedge fund, Third Point LLC, who announced he has just acquired a big chunk of Disney stock. But I’m not convinced now is the time to sell ESPN, just as live sports is about the only thing keeping television going. In fact a lot of analysts have been saying that the new post Netflix Boom reality is less emphasis on fast streaming subscriber growth, more on sustainable profit centers.
Perhaps he is motivated more by the potential bonanza for ESPN if it were able to go all in on sports betting. I suppose with that in mind ESPN is worth a hell of a lot more to a non Disney buyer than to Disney, and Disney stockholders would make out like bandits (that may be redundant). Or, perhaps Loeb is thinking that another entity he also invests heavily in would buy ESPN, and make their own bundle with sports betting. Folding Hulu into D+ is inevitable, but the call here is to do it sooner, meaning paying Comcast $9Billion now rather than in two years, when Disney will be obligated to anyway. The idea here is to goose D+ subscriber numbers even more than the impressive report Disney just gave, which would put the stock value on overdrive. All of this just more and more reminders that corporate decisions are less about how to improve the quality of their service or product line, and more about making an even more obscenely large profit for investors and corporate officers. This is what we are seeing at Warner-Discovery, and at Disney. Of course this has always been true, but is becoming more so. Sorry - I’m out on Strike at Kaiser, likely for weeks or months, and in an ugly mood toward corporate greed and mendacity… https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-08-15/should-disney-spin-off-espn-and-fold-hulu-into-disney-one-investor-thinks-so -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYLaaFGrKxSouv628xxp%2Br4zRFj1EOUWKrhVoOpg8QyMQw%40mail.gmail.com.
