The Walt Disney Company

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{{Infobox_Company | company_name = The Walt Disney Company| company_logo = ]| company_type = Public (NYSE: [http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=DIS DIS)| foundation = [Burbank, California, [United States (1923)| founder = [Walt Disney and [Roy O. Disney| location_city = Burbank, California,
|

key_people = [Robert Iger, President/CEO| num_employees = 133,000 (2006)| industry = [Mass Media and [Entertainment| revenue = {{profit--> $35 .3 billion United States dollar (2006)| operating_income = {{profit--> $6.491 billion USD (2006)
(15.9% [operating margin)| net_income = {{profit--> $3.374 billion USD (2006)
(10.4% [net margin)| products = [American Broadcasting Company, [ABC Family, [ABC Kids (United States), [Walt Disney Studios Distribution, [Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, [Disney Channel, [Disney Channel Original, [ESPN, [ESPN2, [Jetix, [Walt Disney Studios, [Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, [Walt Disney Television, [Walt Disney Television Animation, [Walt Disney Records, [Walt Disney Pictures, [Playhouse Disney, [Disney Consumer Products, [Pixar, [Soapnet, [Disney Interactive Studios, [Disney Store [Toon Disney| operating profit = | homepage = http://corporate.disney.go.com/ -->The Walt Disney Company () is the second largest media and entertainment corporation in the world according to Forbes. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers, Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney as a small animation studio, it has become one of the biggest Hollywood studios, and owner of eleven theme parks and several television networks, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

Disney's corporate headquarters and primary production facilities are located in California at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank).

The company is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It had revenues of USD in 2006.

Holdings Studio Entertainment Until 1955, Disney's only business was motion picture production. Disney Studio Entertainment, also known as the Walt Disney Studios, includes Disney's movie and animation studios, record labels, and Broadway style stage shows.

Since 2002, it has been headed by chairman Dick Cook.

Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group (or 'Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Inc.): Disney's movie studio, which includes the Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, and Miramax labels

Walt Disney Animation Studios' and Pixar Animation Studios: Disney's animation studios, which operate independently of each other
Walt Disney Pictures: distributes and markets company's motion pictures in the United States
Walt Disney Motion Pictures International: distributes company's motion pictures internationally
Walt Disney Home Entertainment: distributes company's motion pictures to rental and retail markets
Disney Music Group: releases original music and movie soundtracks under four labels
Buena Vista Theatrical Group: produces Broadway-style shows
Disney Live Family Entertainment: produces Disney on Ice

Media Networks Its Media Networks unit is centered around the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network, which it acquired through a merger with Capital Cities Communications in 1996. Properties include:

Walt Disney Television
ABC Studios (formerly Touchstone Television)
ABC Entertainment
Disney-ABC Domestic Television (formerly Buena Vista Television)
ESPN
Walt Disney Internet Group

Disney also owns a group of cable networks including: Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, the ESPN group, and SOAPnet. Disney also holds substantial interest in Lifetime Television (50%), A&E Network (37.5%), E! (40%, recently sold to Comcast), and Jetix Europe N.V. (74%). Disney also owns 25% of the GMTV company that operates the Breakfast Programmes on ITV, in the United Kingdom and 50% of Super RTL in Germany.

Through ABC, Disney also owns 10 local television stations, 2 local radio stations, and ESPN Radio, and Radio Disney. Although the ABC Radio Network was sold with other properties to Citadel Broadcasting, (which carries such radio personalities as Sean Hannity and Paul Harvey and distributes news bulletins by ABC News), Disney shareholders now own 57% of Citadel. Disney-ABC Domestic Television, which also is a part of the Media Networks unit, produces such television syndication as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show), Live with Regis and Kelly, and Ebert & Roeper.

Disney also operates its own publishing company, Hyperion (publisher), and Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) through Media Networks. Hyperion has recently published books by comedian-author Steve Martin and bestselling author Mitch Albom. WDIG includes the Go.com web portal, Infoseek search engine which it purchased in 1998, and leading websites such as Disney.com, ESPN.com, American Broadcasting CompanyNews.com and Movies.com. In March 2007, it was reported that Disney is launching a new Web site, Disney Family http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/3/13/75712.shtml, which is a one-stop site for parents, especially mothers. Disney to Launch Web Site Aimed at Moms

Consumer Products

Disney Consumer Products
Disney Store
Jim Henson's Muppets
Disney Interactive Studios

Disney Parks

Disneyland Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Disneyland Resort Paris
Hong Kong Disneyland
Walt Disney Imagineering
Tokyo Disney Resort
Disney Cruise Line

History Founding and early success (1922–1966)

1923: Walt signed a contract with M.J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies - October 16 - the date used as the start of the Disney company. Originally know as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney, as equal partners.http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/complete_history_1.html
1924: First Alice Comedy "Alice's Day at Sea" released.
1926: At Roy's suggestion, the company changed its name to the Walt Disney Studio shortly after moving into the new studio on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district.
1927: The Alice series ends; first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon.
1928: Walt loses the Oswald series contract; first Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie released at the Colony Theatre in New York, the first cartoon with sound on November 18.
1929: First Silly Symphony: The Skeleton Dance. On December 16, the original partnership formed in 1923 is replaced by Walt Disney Productions, Ltd. Three other companies, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company, are also formed.
1930: First appearance of Pluto (dog).
1932: First three-strip Technicolor short released: Flowers and Trees; first appearance of Goofy.
1934: First appearance of Donald Duck.
1937: Studio produces its first full-length feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film). The film is also the first American animated feature film in history, and is the highest-grossing film of all time until 1939's Gone with the Wind (film).
1938: On September 29, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company are merged into Walt Disney Productions.
1940: Studio moves to the Burbank, California buildings where it is located to this day. Release of animated features Pinocchio (1940 film), the first animated film to win both Best Original Score and Best Song Academy Awards, and Fantasia (film), the world's first film to be recorded in stereophonic sound ("Fantasound").
1941: A bitter Disney animators' strike occurs; as the United States enters World War II, the studio begins making morale-boosting propaganda films for the government. Dumbo is released.
1942: Saludos Amigos marks the beginning of a series of low-budget "package" animated films that would continue until 1950. Bambi is also released, after a six-year production period.
1944: The company is short on cash; a theatrical re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs generates much-needed revenue and begins a reissue pattern for the animated feature films.
1945: For the first time, the studio hires live actors for a feature film (Song of the South).
1947: Sign First Independent Studio, The byrnest studio in Orlando which went Bankrupt 3 years later.
1949: The studio begins production on its first all-live action feature, Treasure Island; the popular True-Life Adventures series begins.
1950: Cinderella (1950 film) is released, ending the series of "package" animated films and reviving Disney feature animation.
1952: Walt Disney forms WED Enterprises on December 16 to design his theme park.
1953: Walt Disney forms Retlaw Enterprises on April 6 to control the rights to his name. It will later own and operate several attractions inside Disneyland, including the Monorail and the Disneyland Railroad. Peter Pan is released.
1954: The studio founds Buena Vista Distribution to distribute its feature films; beginning of the Walt Disney anthology series TV program, which runs for decades under several different titles. Disney becomes one of the first American theatrical TV producers to show his recent films on television, although most of them are first shown in truncated versions to fit a one-hour time slot. Others are divided into two or more one-hour segments over several weeks, so that they can be shown on Disney's TV show.
1955: Disneyland Resort opens in Anaheim, California. Lady and the Tramp, the first animated film in history to be shot in widescreen, is released
1957: Walt Disney Productions went public on November 12.
1961: One Hundred and One Dalmatians is released, the first feature length animated film to use Xerography.
1966: Walt Disney dies of lung cancer.

After Walt's death

1967: Construction begins on Walt Disney World Resort; the underlying governmental structure (see Reedy Creek Improvement District) is signed into law. The Jungle Book (1967 film), the last animated film involved with Walt Disney himself, is released.
1971: The Walt Disney World Resort opens in Orlando, Florida; Roy Oliver Disney dies; Donn Tatum becomes chairman and Card Walker becomes president.
1976: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film) becomes the first movie made by the studio to be shown on TV complete in one evening, as opposed to the way the Disney films were divided into weekly segments on his television show.
1977: Roy Edward Disney, son of Roy and nephew of Walt, resigns from the company citing a decline in overall product quality and issues with management.
1978: The studio licenses several minor titles to Music Corporation of America for laserdisc release; only TV compilations of cartoons ever see the light of day through this deal.
1979: Don Bluth and a number of his allies leave the animation division; the studio releases its first PG-rated films, Take Down (1979 film) and The Black Hole.
1980: Tom Wilhite becomes head of the film division with the intent of modernizing studio product; a home video division is created.
1981: Plans for a cable network are announced. Dumbo hits the shelves for video retail, making it the first animated Disney feature available on video.
1982: Epcot opens at Walt Disney World Resort; Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron W. Miller succeeds Card Walker as CEO.
1983: As the Walt Disney anthology series is canceled, Disney Channel begins operation on US cable systems. Tom Wilhite resigns his post as head of the film division. Tokyo Disneyland opens in Japan.

Eisner era (1984–2005)

1984: Touchstone Films is created after the studio narrowly escapes a buyout attempt by Saul Steinberg (business), and releases their first film Splash (film). Roy E. Disney and his business partner, Stanley Gold, remove Ron W. Miller as CEO and president, replacing him with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. The Walt Disney Classics and Masterpiece video collection starts up.
1985: The studio begins making cartoons for television beginning with Adventures of the Gummi Bears and The Wuzzles. The Black Cauldron, the studio's first PG-rated animated film, is released, but is a box office failure. The home video release of Pinocchio becomes a best-seller.
1986: The company's name is changed on February 6 from Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company. Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, is released under the Touchstone Pictures banner.
1987: The company and the France government sign an agreement for the creation of the first Disney Resort in Europe: the Euro Disney project starts. The company opens up a Hall of Fame with Fred MacMurray as the first induction.
1989: Disney offers a deal to buy Jim Henson's Muppets and have the famed puppeteer work with Disney resources; the Disney-MGM Studios open at Walt Disney World; The Little Mermaid (1989 film) sparks a Disney animation renaissance.
1990: Jim Henson's death sours the deal to buy his holdings; the anthology series is canceled for the second time.
1991: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film) is released, becoming the first and only animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
1992: The controversial Disneyland Resort Paris opens outside Paris, France. Aladdin is released for the first time ever and becomes the animated movie with the most Golden Globe nominations, as well as the only traditionally animated movie to be nominated for the MTV Movie Award for best picture.
1992: The Disney Company is granted permission for a National Hockey League expansion franchise. The team is named the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to coincide with the release of The Mighty Ducks.
1993: Disney acquires independent film distributor Miramax Films; Winnie the Pooh merchandise outsells Mickey Mouse merchandise for the first time; the policy of periodic theatrical re-issues ends with this year's re-issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but is augmented for video.
1994: Frank Wells is killed in a helicopter crash. Jeffrey Katzenberg resigns to co-found his own studio, DreamWorks SKG. Plans for Disney's America, a historical theme park in Haymarket, Virginia, are abruptly dropped. No explanation is given, and Disney announces a search for an alternate location. Euro Disneyland is renamed Disneyland Paris. The Lion King, the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history (unadjusted for inflation), is released.
1995: In October, the company hires Hollywood super agent, Michael Ovitz, to be president. The world's first computer animated feature film Toy Story, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, is released by Disney, and becomes the year's top-grossing film.
1996: The company takes on the Disney Enterprises name and acquires the American Broadcasting Company group, renaming it ABC, Inc. To celebrate the pairing, ABC's first Super Soap Weekend is held at Walt Disney World. Disney makes deal with Tokuma Shoten for dubbing and releasing of Studio Ghibli films in the U.S. In December, Michael Ovitz, president of the company, leaves "by mutual consent."
1997: The anthology series is revived again; the home video division releases its first DVDs. The Southern Baptist Convention votes to boycott The Walt Disney Company over opposition to the latter offering equal health and other benefits to gays and lesbians, as well as Disney allowing outside organizers to have "Gay and Lesbian Days" at Walt Disney World. Disney ignored the boycott, which failed and was withdrawn by the SBC on June 22, 2005. Southern Baptists drop Disney boycott
1998: Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World. Kiki's Delivery Service, the first Studio Ghibli film under the Disney/Ghibli deal, is released on video. Disney Cruise Line sets sail with it's first ship, the Disney Magic.
2000: Fantasia 2000 is released to IMAX Theaters.
2000: Disney-owned TV channels are pulled from Time Warner Cable briefly during a dispute over carriage fees; Robert Iger becomes president. Disney begins their Gold Classic Collection and Platinum Edition DVD line, replacing their Classic and Masterpiece Collection series.
2001: Disney's California Adventure and Tokyo DisneySea open to the public; Disney begins releasing Walt Disney Treasures DVD box sets for the collector's market. Disney buys Fox Family for $3 billion in July, giving Disney programming and cable network reaching 81 million homes.
2001: Fort Worth, Texas billionaire Sid Bass is forced to sell his Disney holdings due to a margin (finance)#Margin call caused partially by the stockmarket fall that followed the 9/11 attacks. The fact that Bass didn't own his shares outright but had bought them on margin (finance) was unknown, and it was a shock when it was revealed Losing Bass was a blow to Eisner; Bass was one of his major backers and had been the one to recruit Eisner to Disney.
2002: Walt Disney Studios Park open near Disneyland Paris (renamed Disneyland Park (Paris)). The entire area is now called Disneyland Resort Paris. Disney finishes negotiations to acquire Saban Entertainment, owner of children's entertainment juggernaut Power Rangers. Subsidiary Miramax acquires the USA rights to the Pokémon movies starting with the fourth movie.
2002: Disney teams up with famous video game company Squaresoft (later known as Square-Enix) to release their first ever role-playing game with various Disney characters, Kingdom Hearts. Disney begins joint venture business with Sanrio for Sanrio's greeting cards.
2002: Disney's movie Treasure Planet is released in theaters.
2003: Roy E. Disney resigns as the chairman of Feature Animation and from the board of directors, citing similar reasons to those that drove him off 26 years earlier; fellow director Stanley Gold resigns with him; they establish "SaveDisney" to apply public pressure to oust Michael Eisner. Pixar computer animated film Finding Nemo is released by Disney, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in history until 2004's DreamWorks film Shrek 2. Live-action film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is released, becoming the first film released under the Disney label with a PG-13 rating.
2004: Comcast makes an unsuccessful takeover for the company. CEO Michael Eisner is replaced by George J. Mitchell as chairman of the board after a 43% vote of no confidence. Disney turns down distributing controversial documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, which ends up making $100 million. On February 17, Disney buys the Muppets (excluding the Sesame Street characters).
2005: On July 8 Roy E. Disney rejoins the company as a consultant with the title of Director Emeritus.
2005: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is released in the US breaking many box office records.
2005: Disneyland celebrates its 50th anniversary on July 17. Hong Kong Disneyland officially opens on September 12.
2005: Kingdom Hearts II, the sequel to the game created when Disney teamed up with Square-Enix in 2002, is released.

Iger era (2005–Present)

2005: Bob Iger replaces Michael Eisner as CEO on October 1. Also on October 1, Miramax co-founders Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein left the company to form their own The Weinstein Company.
2006: The Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical airs on January 20. It becomes the most successful movie at its time with 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the US. Soundtrack was released on January 10, 2006 and was the best selling album of 2006, selling 6,469 copies in its first week and climbed to #1 on the Billboard album chart in early March and again in late March of 2006.
2006: On January 23, Disney announces a deal to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. The deal is finalized on May 5. In the process, former Pixar CEO, and current Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, becomes the single largest individual Disney shareholder, holding 7% of outstanding shares. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is released, breaking multiple box office records, including highest-grossing opening day and opening weekend. The film also becomes the third film in motion picture history to gross over US$1 billion, when unadjusted for inflation.
2006: Disney sets record for number of people to visit its parks. A record 112 million people visited Disney parks in 2006.
2006: Disney reacquires the rights to the Walt Disney-era Oswald the Lucky Rabbit films from NBC Universal.
2006: Disney releases the Cars (film) computer animated movie by Pixar on June 9.
2007: Disney released their first non-movie or TV show related media – Spectrobes, a video game for the Nintendo DS.
2007: The revival of the Disney/Amblin Entertainment partnership and the Roger Rabbit franchise which may lead to new theme park appearances, the Roger Rabbit sequel and more.
2007: The Walt Disney Company Buys Supermarket Sweep.
2007: The Walt Disney Company Partners With Club Penguin
2007: Disney announces plans to make The Princess and the Frog, which would be a new Disney Princess movie made in traditional 2-D animation.
2007: The Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical 2 airs on August 17. The film set a new basic cable record upon its premiere, with a total of 17.24 million viewers tuning in, almost 10 million more than the debut of High School Musical. This made it the highest-rated basic cable broadcast of all time.
2007: Disney will release its first animated musical since Mulan called Enchanted (2007 film) in November.
2009: Disney parks are to open a Harry Potter park

Senior Executive Management

Robert Iger (President and CEO)
Roy E. Disney (Consultant)
Thomas O. Staggs (Senior Executive Vice President and CFO)
Alan N. Braverman (Senior Executive Vice President, General Counsel)
John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios)

Current board of directors

Susan Arnold
John Bryson
John S. Chen
Judith Estrin
Robert Iger (CEO)
Steve Jobs
Fred Langhammer
Aylwin Lewis
Monica Lozano
Robert Matschullat
John E. Pepper, Jr. (Chairman)
Orin C. Smith
Roy E. Disney (non-Voting Director Emeritus)

Current division heads

Walt Disney International - Andy Bird
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts - Jay Rasulo

Walt Disney Imagineering - Bruce Vaughn

Walt Disney Creative Entertainment - Anne Hamburger

Walt Disney Studios - Dick Cook (Studio Chairman)

Pixar Animation Studios - Ed Catmull
Walt Disney Animation Studios - Ed Catmull
Buena Vista Music Group - Bob Cavallo
Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group - Oren Aviv
Walt Disney Theatrical - Thomas Schumacher

Disney Consumer Products - Andy Mooney
Disney Media Networks

Disney-ABC Television Group - Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Media Networks
ESPN - George Bodenheimer, co-chair of Media Networks

Chairmen of the Board

1945-1960: Walt Disney
1945-1971: Roy O. Disney (Co-Chair 1945-1960)
1971-1980: Donn Tatum
1980-1983: E. Cardon Walker
1983-1984: Raymond Watson
1984-2004: Michael Eisner
2004-2006: George J. Mitchell
2007-present: John E. Pepper, Jr.

Vice Chairman of the Board

1984-2003: Roy E. Disney
1999-2000: Sanford Litvack

CEOs

1968-1971: Roy O. Disney
1971-1976: Donn Tatum
1976-1983: E. Cardon Walker
1983-1984: Ron W. Miller
1984-2005: Michael Eisner
2005-present: Robert Iger

COOs

1984-1994: Frank Wells
1999-2000: Sanford Litvack (acting COO)
2000-present: Robert Iger

The formal position of Chief Operating Officer was not created until Wells and Eisner came in with Eisner taking the titles of Chairman and CEO and Wells, President and COO.

Criticism

The worldwide commercial success of the Disney brand is viewed by some as detrimental to cultural diversity (see Disneyfication).
Disney is one among several American companies lobbying for harsher enforcement of intellectual property around the world and continued copyright term extensions, posing a perceived threat to the existence of the public domain; see Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Disney has aggressively protected its intellectual property, including suing three Hallandale, Florida daycares for featuring Disney characters on their walls. The images were removed and replaced with Hanna-Barbera characters instead.http://www.snopes.com/disney/wdco/daycare.asp
While the Disney Company is fiercely protective of the copyright on its stories, those stories are frequently based on public domain materials, such as folk and fairy tales. Disney has also been accused of plagiarizing ideas from copyrighted sources; elements of The Lion King greatly resemble the Japanese animated series Kimba the White Lion, and several character designs in Disney's Aladdin (film) bear a striking resemblance to those in Richard Williams' earlier animated film The Thief and the Cobbler. Also, the elements of Atlantis: The Lost Empire resemble the anime series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
The College Program at Disney World has attracted criticism. The program annually provides 8,000 college students with a five-to-eight month internship. Critics argue that Disney is exploiting the program as a source of cheap labor, as interns do the same work as regular employees, but at a substantially lower pay rate. The interns are also required to work at anytime and have no holidays off.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8464524/
Disney has also been accused of human rights violations regarding the working conditions in factories that produce their merchandise. Among these is a campaign by the National Labor Committee drawing attention to abuses at the Niagra Textiles factory in Bangladesh and the use of sweatshop labor.http://www.nlcnet.org/campaigns/niagra/niagra-bangladesh.pdf
Another report, conducted in 2001 by The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee on factories producing Disney merchandise in China's Guangdong province, concluded that "Disney's code of conduct and monitoring system are ineffective and of little use to workers", some of whom were as young as sixteen.http://www.somo.nl/monitoring/reports/hkcic01-02.htm Based on this evidence, The Maquila Solidarity Network and Oxfam Canada awarded Disney their Sweatshop Retailer of the Year award for 2001; Wal-Mart came in second and Nike, Inc. placed third.http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2001/06/18/sweatshops_010618.html source
Disney has been criticized by animal welfare groups for its import, use and frequent deaths of wild animals at its Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park as well as for using purebred dogs in movies such as 101 Dalmatians, which these groups claim leads to creating an artificial demand for these purebred dogs many of whom are later abandoned or surrendered to shelters or rescue groups . In 2007, Snow Buddies, a Disney movie being filmed in Vancouver, Canada, had dozens of animals fall sick and several die from parvovirus . The supplier, a New York breeder, admitted to shipping the dogs under the minimum age specified by federal law and was charged with forging health certificates to facilitate their shipment to Canada.