Disney bought out these big-name companies

source: SlideShare

As of 2014, ESPN is worth over $50 billion by itself. Two years earlier, in 2012, Forbes named ESPN the world’s most valuable media company.

There are many, many other companies that The Walt Disney Company owns. Disney is everywhere, and it’s a good thing. Think of how much entertainment it has created and/or facilitated over the years — it’s mind-blowing!

source: SlideShare

The Walt Disney Company

This probably isn’t surprising, but The Walt Disney Company owns many other companies. Some of those companies are quite big and rich. Here are four companies that Disney now owns. Let’s start with the most obvious one — Pixar.

Pixar

Disney-Pixar with some of your favorite characters (source: Disney Store)

Pixar and Disney have a lot in common — both are animation companies focused specifically on children. Back in 2006, Disney bought out Pixar and now you’ll see “Disney – Pixar” on movie posters, before each movie, and pretty much anywhere Pixar is mentioned publicly. But the relationship between these two was not always so friendly.

Pixar originally came out of the Lucasfilm graphics department back in 1979. The Pixar people left Lucasfilm and then Steve Jobs invested in them. In turn, Walt Disney Studios bought hardware from Pixar — the little animation company was going places. 

But in the late 90s, Disney refused to include Toy Story 2 in the three-film deal. Pixar, obviously, was not happy about that. Jobs even accused Pixar of searching out other partners. Fortunately, the parties worked everything out — Disney and Pixar agreed to a $7.4 billion deal.

Lucasfilm

Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 (source: Doddle)

When Disney acquired George Lucas’ company, Lucasfilm, for $4.06 billion, everyone knew about it. It was a big deal. Because of this, we are now seeing new Star Wars films coming out and plans for more Star Wars movies to be released. This also means that Disney owns Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and you can see Disney park rides based off those movies as well as characters in Disney theme parks.

Marvel

Since Disney bought Marvel, it has only made Marvel better (source: TweetJ)

Many people were skeptical about the 2009 deal that gave Disney ownership of Marvel for a cool $4 billion. Would Marvel comics and superhero movies mesh with Disney’s image?

It seems to be working. 

Well, since then, Marvel franchises have gotten better since 2009. You know all of those hero movies that have been coming out over recent years? A lot of those are from Marvel-Disney. Iron Man, Captain America: Civil War, and many others are just a few examples of Marvel-Disney movies that did great at the box office.

ESPN

An ESPN globe at a Disney theme park (source: Disney Catered Events)

There’s a bit of this-within-that stuff here. In 1984, ABC bought ESPN, which catapulted ESPN into stardom — now every single sports fan knows and is familiar with ESPN. Then, in 1996, Disney bought ABC for $19 billion, so ESPN was a part of the package.

And now ESPN is like a money factory.

As of 2014, ESPN is worth over $50 billion by itself. Two years earlier, in 2012, Forbes named ESPN the world’s most valuable media company.

There are many, many other companies that The Walt Disney Company owns. Disney is everywhere, and it’s a good thing. Think of how much entertainment it has created and/or facilitated over the years — it’s mind-blowing!