So I saw some guy on DeviantArt today mention how he thought Disney was going to buy Sony Pictures next.
As for me? I think they're not going do that—at least not anytime soon. There are three big reasons for that.
The first reason is that they just bought 20th Century Fox for a massive $65 billion, making it their biggest purchase ever. Disney's previous major purchases—Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, were all spaced several years apart each. They had to be, because the company needed to fully absorb the cost of each one before moving onto the next one. All of those earlier purchases were about $4 billion each, which means Disney saw a return on them within a few years. But Fox is different. Disney probably won't break even on its acquisition of Fox for at least 5 years. And until then, it would be stupid to make ANOTHER huge purchase while they're still in the red from the last one.
The other reason is legal. With the addition of 20th Century Fox, Disney will control 40% of the American film market. Adding Sony to that would give them another 10%, pushing them over the 50% mark. In American anti-trust law, a company that controls at least 50% of the market for its product is considered a monopoly and can be forcibly broken up. Disney knows better than to do that.
The third reason is that there is no real reason for Disney to buy Sony Pictures. Everything Sony Pictures is doing, Disney already does too. The only possible reason I can think of for them to do this would be to regain the rights to Spider-Man. But even that isn't much of a reason. See, there’s a clause in a contract relating to the Spider-Man movies which says if Sony were to be sold, the rights would revert back to Marvel. So no matter who ends up buying Sony, Disney will still get Spider-Man regardless.
There are a lot of things Bob Iger theoretically COULD do, but he probably WON'T because they don't fit his strategy.
His strategy, ever since becoming CEO of Disney, has been to emphasize franchises rather than original works, and to buy up other companies in order to fill market niches Disney doesn't already cover. To wit:
Marvel-- Gave Disney a foothold in the superhero genre, which was becoming popular, and allowed the company to sell more products to boys (at the time Disney was associated mostly with girls)
Lucasfilm--Allowed Disney to make movies in the science-fiction genre, when its in-house movies in said genre underperformed. Also, like Marvel, increased the company's appeal to male audiences.
Fox-- Gave Disney a 66% stake in streaming platform Hulu, the rights to most other Marvel characters, National Geographic as a venue for documentaries, multiple franchises aimed at older audiences.
In late 2014 there was a persistent rumor that Disney was going to buy Time Warner. They easily could have, but they didn't. Why? Because there was nothing they had that Disney didn't already have. Time Warner has DC Comics, but Disney already has Marvel. They have an animation studio and a live-action movie studio, but Disney has those too.
It's the same way with Sony. There's nothing Sony has that Disney clearly doesn't already have.
"But wait!" I can already hear you saying. "Sony has the rights to Spider-Man! Of course Disney wants those!"
Not exactly. The nature of the film rights to Spider-Man is such that if Sony Pictures is ever bought by another company, the rights to Spider-Man will automatically revert to Marvel and therefore to Disney.
TL;DR-- Disney could buy Sony Pictures, but they probably won't because it doesn't make sense considering their past strategy.
Submitted February 27, 2019 at 08:29AM by ElSquibbonator https://ift.tt/2T3vsBG