Warren Buffett has touted Disney's brand, trumpeted Snow White and Mickey Mouse, and bemoaned selling the stock. Here are his 10 best quotes about the media giant.
Theron Mohamed
Feb 12, 2022, 3:45 AM
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Warren Buffett bought 5% of Disney for a mere $4 million in 1966, and netted a separate 3.6% stake in the media group when it bought Capital Cities/ABC in 1995. The famed investor sold his Disney stock within three years on both occasions; if he'd held onto the combined 8.6% stake, it would be worth $24 billion today.
Buffett has described cashing out as a "huge mistake," and said he would love to own Disney in its entirety. Berkshire Hathaway's billionaire boss has also trumpeted the value of Disney's global and beloved brand, compared Snow White to a renewable oil field, and joked that the benefit of owning Mickey Mouse is not having to pay him.
Here are Buffett's 8 best quotes about Disney, edited for length and clarity:
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"I first became interested in Disney in 1966, when its market valuation was less than $90 million. At Disneyland, the $17 million Pirates of the Caribbean ride would soon open. Imagine my excitement — a company selling at only five times rides!" (1995)
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"It's a pretty good trade name. When you think about names around the world, it's very hard to beat the name 'Coca-Cola.' But Disney's got a very, very big name." (1996)
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"It's kind of nice to be able to recycle Snow White every seven or eight years. You hit a different crowd. It's like having an oil field where you pump out all the oil and sell it. And then it all seeps back in over seven or eight years." (1996)
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"The nice thing about the mouse is that he doesn't have an agent. He is not in there renegotiating every week or every month and saying, 'Just look at how much more famous I've become in China.' If you own the mouse, you own the mouse." (Buffett was referring to Mickey Mouse and the benefits of having intellectual property.) (1996)
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"Disney means something to billions of people. You have got something in your mind about Disney. And you don't have it about the ABC Video Company, or 20th Century, or Paramount." (He was emphasizing that parents trust Disney's content to be safe and appropriate for their children.) (1997)
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"Just think of what somebody would pay if they could actually buy that share of mind of billions of people around the world. You can't do it. You can't do it with a billion-dollar advertising budget, or a $3 billion advertising budget, or by hiring 20,000 super salesmen." (1997)
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"If I thought the children of the world were going to want to be entertained 10 or 20 years from now, and I was betting on who is going to have a special place in the minds of those kids and their parents, I would probably bet on Disney." (1996)
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"I would rather start with Disney's hand than anyone else's, by some margin." (He was discussing the mounting competition in children's entertainment.) (1996)
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"The Disney sale in the '60s was a huge mistake. I should have been buying, forget about holding." (1998)
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"I wish we owned all of Disney or Coca-Cola or Gillette, but we aren't going to." (Buffett was asked whether he prefers to hold stakes in businesses or own them outright). (1998)
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