Beleaguered Disney CEO Bob Iger is seeking a teammate for its sports network ESPN. Apple is expanding into soccer and baseball coverage for its streaming service. In 2024, Iger could look to Apple for a lifeline.
Disney is casting around for a minority partner to invest in sports cable network ESPN. It’s part of a wider effort undertaken by Iger, who is under pressure from activists including Nelson Peltz, to re-evaluate the $170 billion entertainment company’s broadcast portfolio, which includes other networks like ABC and FX.
Apple is a logical place to start. One of Iger’s hallmark deals was to buy Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ animation studio Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006. The all-stock transaction made Jobs the largest shareholder in the Magic Kingdom, earning him a seat on Disney’s board. Cook in turn recruited Iger to Apple’s board in 2011, where he served until 2019.
See: Disney CEO Bob Iger resigns from Apple’s Board of Directors – September 14, 2019
Both Disney and the $3 trillion technology giant have invested heavily in their respective streaming businesses, but they are in different stages. Disney needs money and Apple needs content, so a deal could work. Cook has bought rights to Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. Having ESPN as its main outlet would be a punch up. Plus, Apple could seed the sports network on iPhones and through Apple TV to juice customer acquisitions.
MacDailyNews Take: Besides a sports brand, what does ESPN have that Apple couldn’t – and is already getting (see MLS Season Pass, Friday Night Baseball, etc.) – on it’s own?
Tim Cook has shown no appetite for mega acquisitions… Apple’s largest acquisition ever occurred in 2014, when the company acquired Beats Electronics for a mere $3 billion, a relatively paltry drop in the bucket (in Apple’s last-reported quarter, the company posted revenue of $117.2 billion. Apple’s revenue for calendar 2022 was $387.537 billion).
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