"Apple and Disney are believed to be more valuable together than they are separately."
On the 30th (local time), Laura Martin, an analyst at Wall Street bank Needham, released a report stating that if Apple acquires Disney, the corporate value could increase by up to 25%. Considering the current market capitalization of $2.5 trillion (approximately 3,246 trillion KRW), the additional corporate value could reach around $631 billion.
According to U.S. economic media Business Insider and others, analyst Martin explained in the report that Apple and Disney both have strong fandoms and price competitiveness, and share the commonality of prioritizing their brands in decision-making processes. She added that both companies operate on a global scale and are based on a wealthy consumer base capable of purchasing relatively expensive products.
In particular, she believes that combining Apple's device-based ecosystem with Disney's content can create greater value. Apple is estimated to mobilize 1.25 billion consumers. These consumers own 200,000 Apple devices on average and use them for four hours daily. Based on this foundation, Apple has launched various subscription services in recent years, including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Arcade, Fitness+, and Apple News.
Martin emphasized, "These ancillary products and marketing decisions lower the barriers to entering the Apple ecosystem," and added that by adding Disney+ and integrating Disney's vast content library into the Apple ecosystem, it will not only be easier to attract new consumers but also raise the barriers to prevent users from leaving.
She further projected, "If the two companies come together, these core assets and drivers of corporate value growth will become even stronger and will not weaken."
Martin also elaborated on this in an interview with CNBC on the same day. She said, "Apple does not seem to be doing anything particularly special regarding the streaming business. They are just spending about $1 billion on video content," and criticized, "Considering competitors invest $30 billion annually in content production, this is just a trivial amount." She added that if Apple has Disney's intellectual property and characters accumulated over 100 years, it could save significantly on costs.
The merger speculation between Apple and Disney is not new. It has been a slowly emerging issue on Wall Street since the early 2000s when Steve Jobs was CEO of Apple. At that time, Jobs and Bob Iger, Disney's CEO, were known to have a friendship and often engaged in business discussions. Iger revealed in his 2019 book that "if Jobs were still alive, they would have merged the companies or at least seriously discussed a merger."
In fact, Disney acquired Pixar, which Apple owned when Jobs was CEO, for $7.4 billion in 2006. Iger disclosed in a 2020 interview with Bloomberg News that around 2005, when Disney's animation studio business was struggling, he considered acquiring Pixar and personally called Jobs to propose the idea. Weeks later, the two met at Apple's headquarters to discuss the matter in detail, which ultimately resulted in Disney's acquisition of Pixar.
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