Disney Will Become the Stock Everyone Wants to Own

To think about how good Disney (DIS) is now is to remember how episodic and moribund it was before Bob Iger came in as CEO in 2005. Before Iger, Disney had long struggled to be a consistent growth company. I don't need to go into the nuts and bolts of why that didn't occur. That's all covered in the excellent book Disney War by one of my oldest and dearest friends, Jim Stewart, but suffice it to say that Disney had become, alternately, a stellar winner and an excruciatingly fabulous short, depending upon the economy and the hits and misses of the chief executive officer.

Originally, there were more hits than misses, including the brilliant merger of ABC Capital Cities in 1995 which brought with it the 80% of ESPN that is not owned by Hearst. Disney's become a lot like Procter & Gamble (PG) , with $11 billion franchises, 11 products, including Mickey and Minnie, Spiderman the Avengers and, of course, perhaps the biggest of them all, Frozen -- that generate more than $1.0 billion. The difference? PG, which built its reputation on building franchises with that kind of power, has stalled in its growth, but for Disney the hits keep coming, including the December release of Star Wars.

Source: The Street

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