Disney issues a statement amid reports that it is in talks to sell ABC and its linear businesses

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Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Posted: Thursday September 14, 2023 5:15pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Bloomberg reported earlier today that the Walt Disney Co. has held exploratory talks about selling its ABC network and TV stations to local broadcaster Nexstar Media Group Inc.

Disney has issued a statement late this afternoon saying, “While we are open to considering a variety of strategic options for our linear businesses, at this time The Walt Disney Company has made no decision with respect to the divestiture of ABC or any other property and any report to that effect is unfounded.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger put the entertainment world on notice during an interview at the Sun Valley conference, where he said that the company is open to a number of options regarding its linear businesses, including ABC and ESPN.

Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

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Ayla4 days ago

MarvelCharacterNerd5 days ago

Okay, I'll do it as long as there's health insurance benefits. :D

Trauma5 days ago

Sub $80 close today. Iger’s legacy is that of failure. Time for someone who cares to step in.

AlexYun_5 days ago

Who’s more likely come after iger?

HauntedPirate5 days ago

Only if the valuation of Hulu from independent evaluators is at or below $27 billion. Anything more than that and the price tag for Disney goes up. 😬

EPCOT-O.G.5 days ago

Hey could be worse. It’s not like in a few months’ time they’ll have to spend close to 10% of their current market cap to fully acquire Hulu, which they’re just going to fold into the D+ albatross.

MR.Dis5 days ago

To actually look at this as a possibility, you are talking about just ABC linear TV, including their news division. I can see the liberals in my minds eye having a heart attack at the thought of a main stream network being more conservative than Fox--LOL.

EPCOT-O.G.5 days ago

Going to be wild when the “next CEO” is a Frankenstein’s monster of Byron Allen and some guy from Herschend Family Entertainment.

Sirwalterraleigh5 days ago

That site is “daily nonsense” Everything is going up…everyone is gonna be rich…by Friday 😎

Drdcm5 days ago

This article and the comments make me chuckle. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4637127-disney-stellar-comeback-approaching No idea if this is reputable at all but entertaining to read the glowing optimistic article and then the comments afterwards Edit: I don’t do individual stocks, I’m an index fund type of guy… so I don’t really follow financial news or “picks” like this article. I am not implying it’s a bad buy, I just the think the juxtaposition between the article and commenters is fascinating.

Drdcm5 days ago

This is all part of the plan. He has to take this risks at the short term expense in order to secure long-term gains for the company. He’s invested in the future and the betterment of society. He’s explained this, it’s all good, move along… move along… 😅

Sirwalterraleigh5 days ago

So was Eisner in many ways…which is why Roy offed him. The lesson is still the same: oligarchy doesn’t work in the longterm. They just didn’t learn it

Sirwalterraleigh5 days ago

You were also being tongue in cheek and he quoted you…which always makes for good entertainment 🤪

Basil of Baker Street5 days ago

Competent division heads with the freedom to run their respective area as they see fit and a CEO who can stay out of the way. That's what will turn this around. Bob 1 and 2 are/were meddlers. IMO you shouldn't hear a good CEO's name in the media constantly.