Walt Disney's history can be traced back to 1923, when Walt Disney and Roy Disney set up Disney Brothers Studio in Hollywood, California. Plane Crazy, directed by Walt Disney, was the first cartoon produced by Disney studios in 1928.
In 1937, the studio produced its first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The company went public in 1940 and later went on to produce other classic animation films such as Pinocchio and Fantasia. In 1955, the Disney Land Theme Park was opened. Disney World opened in Florida in 1971.
The Bass family of Texas, in alliance with Roy Disney, acquired a controlling stake in the company in 1984. During the early 1980s, the company launched the Disney Channel and established theme park in Tokyo. In 1985, the company established Disney MGM studio. A year later, the business changed its name to the Walt Disney Company.
In the early 1990s, the company had a number of successes with animated films such as the Lion King. In 1992, Walt Disney continued its international expansion by opening Disneyland Paris. In 1996, the company bought Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion which included 10 TV stations, 21 radio stations, seven daily newspapers and
10 ownership positions in the cable networks A&E, Lifetime, History Channel and the sports network, ESPN. Later in 1998, it purchased web services from Starwave, a Seattle based software company. It also acquired 43% stake in internet search engine Infoseek for $70 million and launched the GO network, in 1999. Subsequently, the company bought the remaining 57% of Infoseek and formed GO.com, a web portal, which eventually became Walt Disney Internet Group.
In the early 2001, Walt Disney expanded its theme parks in Anaheim, the US and restructured its internet business. The company re-entered into a multi-year agreement with Eastman Kodak to make Kodak the exclusive imaging supplier of film and related products at Disney theme parks and resorts in the US and France as well as for the Disney Cruise Line in 2002. In the same year, Walt Disney, Bank One and Visa announced two multiyear, strategic alliances that created Disney-branded Visa card with Disney rewards, as well as provided Visa with joint marketing opportunities across Disney's various business units.
Disney entered into a 10 year strategic alliance with Hewlett-Packard to develop new technologies and enhanced entertainment experiences, in 2003. In the following year, Walt Disney ended the partnership with Pixar after failing to reach an agreement on how to split future revenues. Comcast announced plans to acquire Walt Disney in a deal worth around $66 billion million in the same year. The offer was later turned down. At the end of 2004, the Children's Place Retail Stores and Walt Disney entered into an agreement for the Children's Place to acquire and operate the Disney Store retail chain in North America, which included 313 stores.
Mr. Henry Samueli and his wife, Orange County entrepreneurs and philanthropists, in 2005, purchased the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the National Hockey League Club based in Orange County, California from Walt Disney. During the mid 2005, the Monday Night Football moved to ESPN under an eight-year agreement with the National Football League. In the same year, Buena Vista Games (BVG), the interactive entertainment arm of Walt Disney, strengthened game development capabilities through the acquisition of Salt Lake City-based video game developer, Avalanche Software, and established a start-up development studio in Vancouver, Canada. Also in 2005, Walt Disney's internet group acquired Minds Eye, one of the leading
11
interactive TV games‘ developers. The company and Verizon agreed for a long term programming contract for Disney and ESPN networks and services.
Walt Disney and Citadel Broadcasting Corporation combined ABC Radio, which included 22 radio stations and the ABC Radio Networks, with Citadel Broadcasting, in 2006. In the same year, the company acquired computer animation company, Pixar. The company launched Disney Mobile site, www.disneymobile.com in the US. Subsequently, Walt Disney acquired Hungama TV, an Indian children's TV channel, and also acquired an equity interest in media company, UTV Software Communications. Wenner Media acquired the US Weekly from Walt Disney, in the same year.
Later in 2006, Comcast and Walt Disney entered into a long-term distribution agreement that extended their relationship into the next decade for the 10 ABC-owned broadcast TV stations and Disney's leading networks and services including Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN HD and SOAPnet. In addition, Comcast launched ESPN Deportes, a stand-alone Spanish-language sports network, and the companies formalized their ESPN2 HD agreement. Comcast also acquired Walt Disney's stake in E! Networks. At the end of 2006, ESPN acquired NASN, the European channel dedicated to North American s