DISNEY HITS 5-YEAR LOW ON THEME PARK WORRIES.The Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co. saw its stock price plummet to a 5-year low Monday amid concerns over predicted drops in theme park attendance in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Washington, D.C., area. Other media giants AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Time Warner and Vivendi Universal both experienced 52-week lows Monday as their stock prices plunged. ``The media sector in general is trading at levels that are so cheap that it more than compensates for the level of risk,'' said Paul Kim, an analyst with Kaufman Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . in New York. Sutro & Co. analyst David Miller David Miller could refer to any of the following:
in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. ; and, on a smaller scale, the cancellation of this week's Monday Night Football “MNF” redirects here. For other uses, see MNF (disambiguation). Monday Night Football (MNF) is a live television broadcast of the National Football League. which brings in $270,000 per 30-second commercial as well as football games pulled from cable channel ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network , also owned by Disney. Meanwhile, Disney on Monday became the first corporate issuer to come out in the debt market since the attacks by purchasing $1 billion in debt from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Disney undertook a bond offering of $500 million of two-year notes and $500 million of three-year notes. Disney Chief Financial Officer Thomas Staggs said the company conducted the bond purchase earlier than planned specifically to finance its $5.3 billion acquisition of the Fox Family Channel, a deal expected to close in October. ``We would have been in the market in the next 30-45 days anyway to raise capital and we thought this was one way to show our confidence in the market as well as in our own balance sheet,'' Staggs said. ``Our original plan would have been to take our time. But Goldman was willing to underwrite so we went ahead and did the deal.'' Disney also used some of the bond money to buy back 385 million of its shares Monday, a move that at least 75 other U.S. companies have also made. Most analysts agree that Disney should be able to weather the current market volatility. ``Longer term, not much has changed for Disney,'' said Jeffrey B. Logson, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. in Los Angeles. ``They have valuable brands, global franchises, they dominate many of their business segments and have a terrific balance sheet. From the long-term perspective, there is a lot of value in Disney at its compressed valuation.'' Disney shares closed at $19.25 on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. , down $4.33, or 18.4 percent, after falling as low as $18.97 during the day, a five-year low. Disney shares have lost one-third of their value this year. The last time Disney shares closed at less than $20 a share was in 1996. AOL Time Warner closed at $30, down $4.41, or 12.82 percent, while Universal Vivendi closed at $41.60, a drop of $2.90, or 6.52 percent. |
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