14 December 2017: Disney agrees to buy much of 21st Century Fox
Disney announced a deal to buy most of 21st Century Fox's film and TV assets, including X-Men, Avatar and The Simpsons, for about $52 billion in stock. Comcast later forced Disney to raise its bid to $71 billion. The aim was to stock up on content for a streaming service to rival Netflix. Disney+ launched in 2019 and quickly attracted millions of subscribers.
The lesson: In media, owning the content library is a strategic weapon against tech rivals.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Disney at the start of 2018 → $1,019 today, vs $2,519 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2018, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 1.0 times the money, but $1,500 less than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Disney teaches: Expensive strategic pivots can take years to pay off; a company remaking itself for a new era can leave shareholders waiting a long time.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $94.00 | $1,170 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $108 | $1,019 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $145 | $759 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Disney? Every starting year and the full story →
More Disney history
- 17 July 1955: Disneyland opens, chaotically
- 16 October 1923: Walt and Roy Disney start a cartoon studio
- 30 October 2012: Disney buys Lucasfilm and Star Wars
- 21 December 1937: Snow White premieres and saves Disney
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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