The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. Founded on October 16, 1922 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney as a small animation studio, it became one of the largest Hollywood studios and also owns eleven theme parks, and several television networks, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
Disney's original (and, until 1955, only) business is motion picture production. Disney Studio Entertainment, also known as the Walt Disney Studios, includes Disney's movie and animation studios, record labels and Broadway-style stage shows. Since 2002 it has been headed by chairman Dick Cook.
Buena Vista Theatrical Group: produces Broadway-style shows
Disney Live Family Entertainment: produces Disney on Ice
Media Networks
Its Media Networks unit is centered around the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network, which it acquired through a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. Properties include:
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1976: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film) becomes the first movie made by the studio to be shown on TV complete in one evening, as opposed to the way the Disney films were divided into weekly segments on his television show.
1977: Roy Edward Disney, son of Roy and nephew of Walt, resigns from the company citing a decline in overall product quality and issues with management.
1978: The studio licenses several minor titles to MCA Discovision for laserdisc release; only TV compilations of cartoons ever see the light of day through this deal.
1979: Don Bluth and a number of his allies leave the animation division; the studio releases its first PG-rated films, Take Down and The Black Hole.
1980: Tom Wilhite becomes head of the film division with the intent of modernizing studio product; a home video division is created.
1981: Plans for a cable network are announced. Dumbo hits the shelves for video retail, making it the first animated Disney feature available on video.
1985: The studio begins making cartoons for television beginning with Adventures of the Gummi Bears and The Wuzzles. The Black Cauldron, the studio's first PG-rated animated film, is released, but is a box office failure. The home video release of Pinocchio becomes a best-seller.
1986: The anthology series is revived; the company's name is changed on February 6 from Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company.
1987: The company and the French government sign an agreement for the creation of the first Disney Resort in Europe: the Euro Disney project starts.
1993: Disney acquires independent film distributor Miramax Films; Winnie the Pooh merchandise outsells Mickey Mouse merchandise for the first time; the policy of periodic theatrical re-issues ends with this year's re-issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but is augmented for video.
1994: Frank Wells is killed in a helicopter crash. Jeffrey Katzenberg resigns to co-found his own studio, DreamWorks SKG. Plans for Disney's America, a historical theme park in Haymarket, Virginia, are abruptly dropped. No explanation is given, and Disney announces a search for an alternate location. Euro Disneyland is renamed Disneyland Paris. The Lion King, the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history (unadjusted for inflation), is released.
1995: In October, the company hires Hollywood super agent, Michael Ovitz, to be president. The world's first computer animated feature film Toy Story, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, is released by Disney, and becomes the year's top-grossing film.
1996: The company takes on the Disney Enterprises name and acquires the Capital Cities/ABC group, renaming it ABC, Inc. To celebrate the pairing, ABC's first Super Soap Weekend is held at Walt Disney World. Disney makes deal with Tokuma Shoten for dubbing and releasing of Studio Ghibli films in the U.S. In December, Michael Ovitz, president of the company, leaves "by mutual consent."
1997: The anthology series is revived again; the home video division releases its first DVDs. The Southern Baptist Convention votes to boycott The Walt Disney Company over opposition to the latter offering equal health and other benefits to gays and lesbians, as well as Disney allowing outside organizers to have "Gay and Lesbian Days" at Walt Disney World. Disney ignored the boycott, which failed and was withdrawn by the SBC on June 22, 2005.[2]
2000: Disney-owned TV channels are pulled from Time Warner Cable briefly during a dispute over carriage fees; Robert Iger becomes president. Disney begins their Gold Classic Collection and Platuim Edition DVD line, replacing their Classic and Masterpiece Collection series.
2001: Disney's California Adventure and Tokyo DisneySea open to the public; Disney begins releasing Walt Disney TreasuresDVD box sets for the collector's market. Disney buys Fox Family for $3 billion in July, giving Disney programming and cable network reaching 81 million homes.
2002: Walt Disney Studios open near Disneyland Paris (renamed Disneyland Park). The entire area is now called Disneyland Resort Paris. Disney finishes negotiations to acquire Saban Entertainment, owner of children's entertainment juggernaut Power Rangers. Subsidiary Miramax acquires the USA rights to the Pokémon movies starting with the fourth movie.
2002: Disney teams up with famous video game company Squaresoft (later known as Square-Enix) to release their first ever role-playing game with various Disney characters, Kingdom Hearts. Disney begins joint venture business with Sanrio for Sanrio's greeting cards.
2003: Roy E. Disney resigns as the chairman of Feature Animation and from the board of directors, citing similar reasons to those that drove him off 26 years earlier; fellow director Stanley Gold resigns with him; they establish "SaveDisney" to apply public pressure to oust Michael Eisner. Pixar computer animated film Finding Nemo is released by Disney, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in history until 2004's DreamWorks film Shrek 2. Live-action film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is released, becoming the first film released under the Disney label with a PG-13 rating.
2004: Comcast makes an unsuccessful hostile bid for the company. CEO Michael Eisner is replaced by George J. Mitchell as chairman of the board after a 43% vote of no confidence. Disney turns down distributing controversial documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, which ends up making $100 million. On February 17, Disney buys the Muppets (excluding the Sesame Street characters).
2006: On January 23, Disney announces a deal to purchase Pixar Animation Studios in an all-stock transaction worth $7,400,000,000. The deal is finalized on May 5. In the process, former Pixar CEO, and current Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, becomes the single largest individual Disney shareholder, holding 7% of outstanding shares. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is released, breaking multiple box office records, including highest-grossing opening day and opening weekend. The film also becomes the third film in motion picture history to gross over US$1 billion, when unadjusted for inflation.
2007:Disney released their first non-movie or TV show media- Spectrobes, a video game for the Nintendo DS.
Prior to 2004, the chairmanship was an executive position. With Mitchell's succession in 2004, the post became non-executive, meant to be held by an independent director who would lead the board of directors in its oversight of company management.
Although Walt Disney's role at his production company was what would today be assigned to a CEO, Walt Disney Productions did not formally create the position until 1968.
The formal position of Chief Operating Officer was not created until Walt Disney Productions restructured itself in 1968. From the creation of the studio until his brother's death, Roy O. Disney had effectively served as COO.
Criticism
The worldwide commercial success of the Disney brand is viewed by some as detrimental to cultural diversity (see Disneyfication).
Disney is one among several American companies lobbying for harsher enforcement of intellectual property around the world and continued copyright term extensions, posing a perceived threat to the existence of the public domain; see Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Disney has aggressively protected its intellectual property, including suing three Hallandale, Florida daycares for featuring Disney characters on their walls. The images were removed and replaced with Hanna-Barbera characters instead source.
The College Program at Disney World has attracted criticism. The program annually provides 8,000 college students with a five-to-eight month internship. Critics argue that Disney is exploiting it as a source of cheap labour, as interns do the same work as regular employees but at a substantially lower rate source.
Disney has also been accused of human rights violations regarding the working conditions in factories that produce their merchandise. Among these is a campaign by the National Labor Committee drawing attention to abuses Niagra Textiles factory in Bangladesh and the use of sweatshop labour. source
Another report conducted in 2001 by The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee on factories producing disney merchandise in China's Guangdong province concluded that "Disney's code of conduct and monitoring system are ineffective and of little use to workers" some of whom were as young as sixteen source. Based on this evidence, The Maquila Solidarity Network and Oxfam Canada awarded Disney their Sweatshop Retailer of the Year award for 2001, where Wal-Mart came in second and Nike placed third source.
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