According to Steve Cahall — an analyst at Wells Fargo — it’s likely Disney will spinoff ESPN and ABC in 2023.
Much has been made about ESPN’s future under Disney as sports betting becomes more prevalent. The gambling space runs diametrically opposed to Disney’s family-friendly image. The return of Bob Iger as the company’s CEO only makes it more likely the sports network is sold in the new year, according to Cahall.
“We think Bob Iger is returning to [Disney] ready to make big changes. With linear and sports trends diverging from core IP, we think severing the company is increasingly logical.”
He later added he believed it’s likely that The Walt Disney Company will become less interested in the network as time goes by.
“Investors can build their own portfolios, and we think ESPN inside of DIS is a portfolio with less and less logical connection as time goes by,” Cahall added. “As such, to us it’s a reasonably probable event for late 2023.”
Earlier this year, Daniel Loeb sent former Disney CEO Bob Chapek a letter asking for a meeting to discuss the company selling ESPN.
Loeb eventually backed off his push for the company to spinoff the sports network, saying he received “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”.
The worldwide leader has also seen rumors that it would be purchased by tech giant Apple, which Puck News refuted earlier this week.
