BURBANK (dpa-AFX) - Diversified media and entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney Co. (DIS) is in talks to acquire online video-producer Maker Studios for about $500 million, according to media reports on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, media reports also indicated that Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman of Disney Media networks and President of Disney-ABC Television Group, will leave Walt Disney Co. in January 2015 to pursue a career in television directing.
The deal to acquire Maker Studios will mark Disney's foray into YouTube programming and also enable the company to make boost its presence in the fast-growing online video market. According to reports, Disney could pay up to $900 million for the acquisition, if certain goals are met.
Maker is a multi-channel network that creates content aimed at millennials - the generation of people born between 1982 and 2002. The company makes deals with amateur users who produce YouTube videos.
Maker receives 5.5 billion views per month on its channels and has 380 million subscribers to 50,000 YouTube channels that it owns or manages on behalf of partners The company runs popular YouTube channels including one starring Felix Kjellberg, a videogame commentator known online as PewDiePie.
Investors in Maker include Time Warner Ventures, actor Robert Downey Jr.'s Downey Ventures, 'Avatar' producer Jon Landau, and television executive Elisabeth Murdoch.
Several media companies have recently boosted their presence in the online video market. Rupert Murdoch's 21Century Fox invested $70 million in Vice Media in 2013, while DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA) acquired Maker's peer Awesomeness TV in a deal worth up to $117 million.
Meanwhile, media reports indicated that Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman of Disney Media networks and President of Disney-ABC Television Group, will leave Walt Disney Co. in January 2015 to pursue a career in television directing.
Sweeney is said to have made a voluntary decision to leave the company in January 2015 after an eighteen-year tenure. She had reportedly turned down a three-year contract at the company, instead opting for a one-year extension that lasts until late January 2015.
Sweeney, who joined Disney in February 1996, oversees cable networks including Disney Channel and ABC Family, as well as the ABC broadcast network as president of Disney/ABC Television Group.
Sweeney, who spent 12 years at Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite and another three years at FX Networks, Inc. before joining Disney in 1996. In 2005, Sweeney led talks with Apple Inc. (AAPL) that enabled Disney to become the first Hollywood studio to license its movies for download from Apple's iTunes Store.
Sweeney's decision is seen as reducing the number of leading contenders to succeed Walt Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger when he retires in June 2016. Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo and Thomas Staggs, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, are seen as the leading contenders to succeed Iger.
DIS closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $81.05, down $0.92 or 1.12 percent on a volume of 7.17 million shares. However, in after-hours, the stock gained $0.23 or 0.28 percent to $81.28.
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