The Walt Disney Company

Morning Session - 2024 Meeting

“with the desperate housewives, we had to get Disney's okay, and that was easy to get.”

Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2023 — Munger Q&A

“How would you like running the sports, ESPN now at Disney compared to its heyday? It's going to be way harder for them.”

Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2023 — Munger Q&A

“Disney is an interesting case. Practically every business that Disney has, has gotten tougher than it used to be.”

Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2023 — Munger Q&A

“Movies look to me like it's going to be a blood bath, too.”

Afternoon Session - 2023 Meeting

“Disney was unique in its animated, what it offered, you know, in the 30s and 40s.”

Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2022 — Munger Q&A

“For a long time on a Disney cruise ship, they had two different kinds of staterooms, one with a window and one without a window.”

Afternoon Session - 2022 Meeting

“Disney's Robert Chapec, who not only embraces the view that gender is a form of oppression, but that kindergartens must be forced to confront it”

Afternoon Session - 2022 Meeting

“company is adding warnings to Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Aladdin about the stereotypes they allegedly portray”

Buffett: We need to help free trade's "roadkill" | March 28, 2019

“if I'm Bob Agger at Disney, I'm going to think about every way that I can to beat them to the punch”

Buffett sees "gradual improvement" in economy | May 6, 2013

“Do you like Disney? Do you like that model? You got theme parks, you got movies, you got cable.”

2012 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“wishing makes dreams come true only in Disney movies; it's poison in business”

Poor Charlie's Almanack

“Buffett Partnership, for example, owned American Express and Disney when they got pounded down”

Poor Charlie's Almanack

“Disney had basic momentums in place that are very powerful and that Eisner and Wells were very unusual managers”

Poor Charlie's Almanack

“That existed in Disney. It's such a unique experience to take your grandchild to Disneyland...Disney found that it could raise those prices a lot, and the attendance stayed right up.”

Poor Charlie's Almanack

“Disney's a perfectly marvelous company, but it's also very high-priced. Part of what it does is to make ordinary movies which is not a business that attracts me at all. However, part of what Disney ha”

Poor Charlie's Almanack

“Disney is an amazing example of autocatalysis.... They had all those movies in the can. He owned the copyright.”

Morning Session - 2005 Meeting

“Michael Eisner is standing out there getting soaked...I said to Suez, why don't you go out there and help them out...I've waited in line at Disneyland.”

Wesco 2004 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)

“professional managers who destroyed the culture, as happened at Disney and Hewlett-Packard”

Wesco 2004 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)

“I think we're way more like Wal-mart than Disney.”

How Buffett decides it's a time to sell a stock

“sold McDonald's and Disney after not owning them for long... We think Disney has a fine future.”

Morning Session - 2002 Meeting

“you sold McDonald's and Disney after not owning them for long. How do you decide when to hold forever and when to sell?”

Morning Session - 2002 Meeting

“We think Disney has a fine future, and there are others”

Morning Session - 2000 Meeting

“company number two, definitely a household name, but missing from the list this year, the Walt Disney Corporation”

Morning Session - 2000 Meeting

“The Disney company, our ownership in that fell below the threshold level... we think Disney is a terrific business. Michael Eisner is on a great job there.”

Warren Buffett | Nightline Interview | 1999

“Warren owns a few million shares of the Disney Corporation, which of course owns ABC.”

Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting

“has the Disney cap cities merger gone as well as you would have hoped, and has the future prospects of Disney changed”

Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting

“I invested in those three companies, Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Disney”

Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting

“You owned Disney once before and sold it. You also owned advertising companies in the 70s, I believe, and you sold them.”

Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting

“the Disney sale in the 60s was a huge mistake. I should have been buying.”

Morning Session - 1998 Meeting

“or what Gillette's going to look like in 10 years, or what Disney's going to look like in 10 years”

Morning Session - 1998 Meeting

“there's been some criticism levied recently at the Disney Company, mainly from an accounting professor at one of the state universities in New York.”

Morning Session - 1998 Meeting

“I don't think Disney is a very complicated enterprise to evaluate. I mean, there are, when Cap Cities bought ABC, there were purchase accounting adjustments”

Morning Session - 1998 Meeting

“I've got no great quarrel with the accounting at Disney. I think – Rilloff is a wonderful guy.”

Morning Session - 1998 Meeting

“we disagree with the amount of amortization of intangibles entirely. So we would say that if Disney is charging whatever it may be, probably $400 million”

Morning Session - 1998 Meeting

“the economic earnings of Disney might well be more than the reported earnings in the next few years.”

Morning Session - 1998 Meeting

“I wish we owned all of Disney or Coca-Cola or Gillette, but we aren't going to.”

1997 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel

“It is at Disneyland, a Disney world, and it's... It's at ballparks, and it's every place that you're likely to have a smile”

"It's share of mind that counts"

“Disney, same way. Disney means something to billions of people. And if you're a parent with a couple of young children and you've got 50 videos in front of you”

"Mistake" not to buy drug companies

“Disney is the entertainment company to be in”

America's economy "encourages" adaptation

“Michael Eisner, Disney, or any of those people, they don't work 40-hour weeks. They work 70 or 80-hour weeks.”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“in companies like Coca-Cola or Gillette or Disney or those kind of businesses, you will see the information”

Morning Session - 1997 Meeting

“three companies that I chose were Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Disney”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“Gillette travels, Disney travels, McDonald's travels, McDonald's travels, Coke travels”

Morning Session - 1997 Meeting

“Also, I have a question about Cap Cities and now Disney. And is Mr. Murphy keeping busy now? that ABC is owned by Disney.”

Morning Session - 1997 Meeting

“And Disney is conscious of that, and they are very able operators, and I predict you'll see in a couple of years.”

Morning Session - 1997 Meeting

“I think the TV network business is intrinsically a pretty tough business, and Disney did way better on ESPN than they might have forecast”

Morning Session - 1997 Meeting

“And I think Disney has been pleasantly surprised by how well ESPN has done, too. It's a powerhouse.”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“That's true for Gillette and Disney and the companies of that sort that have got these terrific opportunities to use capital”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“Disney means something to billions of people... that name to billions of people... it has a meaning. And that meaning overwhelmingly is favorable”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“what does that stand for five or 10 or 20 years now? You know there'll be more people that have heard of Disney.”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“Coca-Cola or a Disney or companies like that doing things that you think, well, this doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“I think the Disney company is being run in an absolutely first-rate way. And I have no problem whatsoever with the gays being employed”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“Michael Eisner did the same thing, Disney hadn't gone any place. You know, in 15 years or something... Michael really saw what the future should be.”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“Disney is the entertainment company to be in, then it is for me to figure out”

Morning Session - 1997 Meeting

“Roberto Guizuela, Coca-Cola, or Michael Eisner, Disney, or any of those people. They don't work 40 hour weeks.”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“talking so positively about some of your stocks, in particular Disney, such as in the 95 annual report when you talked about actually telling everyone that you were buying more shares”

Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting

“I got to ask the question at Disney, and I answered it, and that's my general approach. I think it's usually a bad mistake to sell your interest in wonderful businesses”

1996 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“24,614,214 The Walt Disney Company............ 577.0 1,716.8”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“the surprise could be coming from Disney because it seems to me they've been coasting up until very recently”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“the most important person at Disney in the last 12 years or whatever it's been, has been Michael Eisner”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“Eisner has been the Walt Disney in effect of his tenure...he has been, in my view, by far, the most important factor in Disney's success.”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“mine want to see Disney. And they want to see it over and over and over again... Disney's got a very, very big name.”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“with respect to Eisner and Disney, how would you define Michael Eisner's circle of competence”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“he has proven himself very good at understanding what Disney is really good at understanding what Disney is really all about”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“Disney's done an extraordinary job for the shareholders and they make real money out of movies”

Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting

“Earlier you led us through a discussion of the competitive position of Disney and you also discussed share repurchase.”

Morning Session - 1996 Meeting

“we didn't know whether it was going into cash or the all Disney stock or a combination”

Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)

“Disney's a perfectly marvelous company... Disney is an amazing example of autocatalysis... Disney got this enormous tailwind”

1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“we exchanged our Cap Cities shares for a combination of cash and Disney stock.”

1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“In 1967 I sold out at 48¢ per share. Oh well - we're happy to be once again a large owner of a business with both unique assets and outstanding management.”

1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“I first became interested in Disney in 1966, when its market valuation was less than $90 million... Buffett Partnership Ltd. bought a significant amount of Disney stock at a split-adjusted price of 31”

1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“In the Disney merger, Cap Cities shareholders had a choice of actions. If they chose, they could exchange each of their Cap Cities shares for one share of Disney stock plus $65.”

1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“For our 20 million shares, we sought stock... We are certain, however, to receive something over 20 million Disney shares. We have also recently bought Disney stock in the market.”

1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“Michael Eisner, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, was walking up Wildflower Lane in Sun Valley.”

1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter

“The Disney/Cap Cities deal makes so much sense that I'm sure it would have occurred without that chance encounter in Sun Valley.”

Morning Session - 1994 Meeting

“He might go to Walt Disney someday and, you know, pull down $200 million.”

USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)

“Buffett Partnership, for example, owned American Express and Disney when they got pounded down.”

USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)

“Disney had basic momentums in place which are very powerful and that Eisner and Wells were very unusual managers”

USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)

“That existed in Disney. It's such a unique experience to take your grandchild to Disneyland... Disney found that it could raise those prices a lot”