"Wells Fargo estimated that if Disney focused on licensing out its intellectual property instead of running its own streaming service, it could generate more than $15 billion in annual licensing revenue."

This is what Iger's OpenAI licensing deal from last December was all about. DIS is a brand. It monetizes its content and sells to its audience. But not sure the board sees it that way, nor are they likely to give up on streaming, which is audience engagement, data, and steady revenue. First of all, it's gotta be hard to let go of your biggest moneymaker for decades. And their content creation lately hasn't been so good. Plus, D'Amaro is an operator, not a content guy. If they wanted to go this route, they would/should have picked Dana Walden as CEO.

A renewed focus on developing popular, moneymaking characters and stories (rather than trying to run 100 different businesses from movies to parks to boats to real estate development) would transform DIS and maybe get me back in, but it seems unlikely. Maybe they'll start with the streaming, which is in a very slow turnaround. Then they can spin-off ESPN and sports betting, which is a great business, but not for DIS.

Happy to continue this on the DIS board if anyone is interested.

abromber