Walt Disney Company's profit soars with annual profit growth reports beating the earlier Wall Street estimates, as huge influx of tourists continue to swarm its plethora of theme parks peppered across the country while its big screen offerings like "Black Panther," Ant-Man and the Wasp," and "Avengers: Infinity Wars" dominate the box office, both domestically and internationally. Meanwhile, Chief Executive Robert Iger laid out his plans on the entertainment company's digital future to investors on Thursday.
According to Reuters, the mouse house ended its fiscal year on a very impressive note with its overall revenue in the latest quarter peaking at 12 percent to $14.3 billion, well above the market analysts' average estimate of around $13 billion.
The firm's net income soared 33 percent to $2.3 billion with adjusted earnings per share of $1.48, beating analysts' prediction of $1.34, the news agency cited IBES data from Refinitiv.
Disney's shares gained nearly 8 percent in 2018 plus this quarter's 1.7 percent increase in the after-hours trading to $118.
Future Projects
The Wall Street Journal cited Mr. Iger's confirmation regarding the acquisition deal on some of the major assets of 21st Century Fox, Inc. which will likely to push through its completion at a much earlier date this year rather than the initial mid-2019 window. This takeover is seen to further push the mouse company's plan to set roots in the online streaming sector.
This merger proposition would allow give Disney more avenues to deliver its entertainment content to consumers. As WSJ explained, Disney TV shows like "High School Musical" will stream alongside Fox's original programming.
This team-up of two entertainment behemoths is deemed to cause a major shakeup in Hollywood economics as traditional studios are now beginning to tie-up with several online streaming properties like Netflix, Inc.
Speaking of online streaming, the New York Times also reported Disney's so-called high-risk plan of making its own subscription streaming service, similar to that of Netflix.
As indicated, the Walt Disney Company is looking to carry out this project as early as next year. This will ultimately bring an enormous amount of original content from the company into one single platform.
In fact, Iger has already revealed the name of this streaming service during the conference call on Thursday, calling it Disney Plus, stylized as Disney+.
One of the most-awaited offerings to come to this channel would be a new Star Wars live-action video series.
Disney is expected to shell out huge marketing expenses as well as financial resources for the development of such user-end technology.
