Daniel Loeb, who has been described as an “activist investor”, is walking back his stance that The Walt Disney Company should sell ESPN.
During a Twitter thread Sunday, Loeb said he now “has a better understanding of ESPN’s potential as a standalone business and another vertical for Disney to reach a global audience to generate ad and subscriber revenues”.
During an interview last week, Disney CEO Bob Chapek told Variety no less than 100 entities expressed an interest in exploring a purchase of ESPN, before saying the network isn’t for sale. He also said Disney has “a plan for it that will restore ESPN to its growth trajectory. When the rest of the world knows what our plans are, they will be as confident about that proposition as we are.”
In August, Loeb called for Disney to spin off ESPN as the network would then have “greater flexibility to pursue business initiatives that may be more difficult as part of Disney, such as sports betting” noting the parent company’s more “family friendly” image as a hinderance to ESPN.
