I am not buying the talk that Bob Iger’s mission is to identify his successor at Disney (DIS). A sale will most likely be Iger’s final act as Disney CEO.
Iger already whiffed once with his selection of Bob Chapek as his successor. Iger will not make the same mistake twice. Rather than name a successor, our view is that Iger will sell Disney – in parts or as a whole.
- Apple (AAPL), would take a hard look at Disney’s content business and is the logical acquirer.
- Amazon (AMZN), would also take a hard look at Disney’s content business for its Prime segment and would give Apple a run for its money in a competitive bidding process. Amazon has the benefit of already having acquired MGM Studios and could point to MGM as a case study to sell Disney on doing a deal.
- Microsoft (MSFT), would also likely consider a prospective Disney acquisition. Microsoft has demonstrated an appetite for content – at least on the Gaming side with its acquisitions of Bethesda Softworks and Activision Blizzard (ATVI), the latter of which is in-process.