Apple and Disney are two of the largest companies in the world. For years they were not in each other’s crosshairs, but with the advent of Apple TV+, that has now changed. Can the two giants merge into one huge giant?
In recent months, stock market analysts have been calling it an opportunity if Apple and Disney were to merge into one big company. It would improve value. Yet the two don’t seem to be working on that at the moment. But a strange thought? No, it certainly isn’t.
Disney and Apple: a golden combination?
It would be the biggest merger ever: Apple together with Disney. It will probably lead to a lot of outside opposition as it creates a mega-company, but financial experts see great benefits for sales and profits. Needham analyst Laura Martin, for example, said it would make Apple worth 15 to 25 percent more if it happens.
That money is of interest to shareholders, of course, but does it really benefit the companies? For years there has been a good relationship between Disney and Apple. That has everything to do with Steve Jobs. He was a major shareholder in Pixar, the studio you may know from Finding Nemo and Toy Story.
The studio was eventually sold to Disney in 2006, after which Steve Jobs joined the company’s board of directors. He remained in this position, in addition to working for Apple, until his death in 2011.
For a long time, no one thought of a merger between Disney and Apple; after all, they both focused on different branches. The iPhone maker, of course, was totally unconcerned with series and movies, and the only gadgets Disney wanted to develop at most were lightsabers and Mickey Mouse hugs.
Tim Cook as top executive of Apple and Disney? (Image: Brooks Kraft/Apple Inc)
Apple and Disney are now competitors
With the arrival of Apple TV+, however, everything has changed. All at once, the two companies are competitors. Despite the good relationship, Disney+ and Apple TV+ have never worked together.
Yet it just might have happened, according to former Disney CEO Bob Iger. He wrote in his biography The Ride on a Lifetime, “I believe if Steve Jobs were alive today, we would have merged our companies. Or at least would have really discussed the possibility.”
Still, a merger or acquisition is not really entirely in line between the companies. Disney’s biggest acquisitions have been film companies like Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox.
Apple, on the other hand, hardly ever makes acquisitions with large amounts of money. The biggest one dates back to 2014 with Beats for $3 billion. This was also a fairly logical move. Not only does Beats make headphones, it also had its own streaming service. Something Apple wanted to use and thus Apple Music came out of that.
Baby Yoda on Apple TV+? (Image: Disney+)
A mega takeover or merger
That $3 billion is a pittance compared to the value of The Walt Disney Company. This one is worth $182.56 billion.
Apple doesn’t need the knowledge around streaming services now. With TV+, it already has its own platform and it already has quite a few big names attached to the service. Nevertheless, the companies can accelerate each other. Consider, for example, VR/AR that the Cupertino-based company is now working on.
However, it cannot be assumed that an acquisition will be an automatic success. Sometimes a merger between two companies seems like an ideal match, but still disappoints. There can be many reasons for this.
Still, so it just might be, although so far the companies don’t seem to want it. And weird, no it certainly isn’t, given the friendly relationship between Apple and Disney.
