-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE----- Proc-Type: 2001,MIC-CLEAR Originator-Name: webmaster@www.sec.gov Originator-Key-Asymmetric: MFgwCgYEVQgBAQICAf8DSgAwRwJAW2sNKK9AVtBzYZmr6aGjlWyK3XmZv3dTINen TWSM7vrzLADbmYQaionwg5sDW3P6oaM5D3tdezXMm7z1T+B+twIDAQAB MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA, Eho3HSVtIv/0hsttm684wKrIjRRshjj/79yDdNNJSZCbBf1yK4AMgBhjkNw+WVWm hSksobHBaHMuTrkTVXwI0Q== 0001193125-10-258967.txt : 20101112 0001193125-10-258967.hdr.sgml : 20101111 20101112164400 ACCESSION NUMBER: 0001193125-10-258967 CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE: 8-K PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT: 3 CONFORMED PERIOD OF REPORT: 20101111 ITEM INFORMATION: Results of Operations and Financial Condition ITEM INFORMATION: Financial Statements and Exhibits FILED AS OF DATE: 20101112 DATE AS OF CHANGE: 20101112 FILER: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: WALT DISNEY CO/ CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0001001039 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: SERVICES-MISCELLANEOUS AMUSEMENT & RECREATION [7990] IRS NUMBER: 954545390 STATE OF INCORPORATION: DE FISCAL YEAR END: 1002 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: 8-K SEC ACT: 1934 Act SEC FILE NUMBER: 001-11605 FILM NUMBER: 101187336 BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 500 SOUTH BUENA VISTA ST CITY: BURBANK STATE: CA ZIP: 91521 BUSINESS PHONE: 8185601000 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 500 SOUTH BUENA VISTA ST CITY: BURBANK STATE: CA ZIP: 91521 FORMER COMPANY: FORMER CONFORMED NAME: DC HOLDCO INC DATE OF NAME CHANGE: 19950918 8-K 1 d8k.htm FORM 8-K Form 8-K

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

FORM 8-K

 

 

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of Earliest Event Reported):

November 11, 2010

 

 

The Walt Disney Company

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Delaware   1-11605   95-4545390
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation)   (Commission File Number)   (IRS Employer Identification No.)

500 South Buena Vista Street

Burbank, California 91521

(Address of principal executive offices)(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (818) 560-1000

Not applicable

(Former name or address, if changed since last report)

 

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions (see General Instruction A.2. below):

 

¨ Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 

¨ Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 

¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 

¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

 

 

 


 

Item 2.02 Results of Operations and Financial Condition.

On November 11, 2010, the Registrant issued a press release relating to its results for the fiscal year and quarter ended October 2, 2010. A copy of the press release is furnished herewith as Exhibit 99.1.

 

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits

 

  (c) Exhibits

 

  99.1 Press release of November 11, 2010
  99.2 Transcript of conference call of the Registrant on November 11, 2010

Signatures

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

 

    The Walt Disney Company

By:

 

/s/ Roger J. Patterson

  Roger J. Patterson
 

Managing Vice President, Counsel
Registered In-House Counsel

Dated: November 12, 2010

EX-99.1 2 dex991.htm PRESS RELEASE Press release

Exhibit 99.1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 11, 2010

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER EARNINGS

BURBANK, Calif. – The Walt Disney Company today reported earnings for the fiscal year and fourth quarter ended October 2, 2010. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the year increased 15% to $2.03 from $1.76 in the prior year. For the quarter, diluted EPS was $0.43 compared to $0.47 in the prior-year quarter. The decrease for the quarter reflected a $0.09 adverse impact from a shift in the timing of recognition of previously deferred revenues between the third and fourth quarters at ESPN. Additionally, fiscal 2010 results for the full year and for the quarter include one fewer week of operations compared to fiscal 2009 due to our fiscal period end.

“The 2010 fiscal year was a financial and strategic success for The Walt Disney Company with performance driven by great content like Toy Story 3 and the way we benefited from that content across our many businesses. Our fourth quarter earnings grew solidly after factoring out a programming writeoff at one of our equity networks, the timing of ESPN revenue recognition and the effect of one fewer week of operations this year than last,” said Disney president and CEO Robert A. Iger. “With the acquisition of Marvel, our brand and franchise portfolio is stronger than ever and we’re confident our global growth strategy positions the company well to thrive in the coming years.”

The following table summarizes the fourth quarter and full year results for fiscal 2010 and 2009 (in millions, except per share amounts):

 

     Year Ended            Quarter Ended         
     October 2,
2010
     October 3,
2009
     Change     October 2,
2010
     October 3,
2009
     Change  

Revenues

   $ 38,063       $ 36,149         5   $ 9,742       $ 9,867         (1 )% 

Segment operating income (1)

   $ 7,586       $ 6,672         14   $ 1,717       $ 1,853         (7 )% 

Net income (2)

   $ 3,963       $ 3,307         20   $ 835       $ 895         (7 )% 

Diluted EPS (2)

   $ 2.03       $ 1.76         15   $ 0.43       $ 0.47         (9 )% 

Cash provided by operations

   $ 6,578       $ 5,319         24   $ 2,206       $ 1,738         27

Free cash flow (1)

   $ 4,468       $ 3,566         25   $ 1,409       $ 1,112         27

 

  (1)

Aggregate segment operating income and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures. See the discussion of non-GAAP financial measures below.

  (2)

Reflects amounts attributable to shareholders of The Walt Disney Company, i.e. after deduction of noncontrolling (minority) interests.

 

1


 

EPS for the current year included restructuring and impairment charges ($270 million), gains on the sales of investments in two television services in Europe ($75 million), a gain on the sale of the Power Rangers property ($43 million), and an accounting gain related to the acquisition of The Disney Store Japan ($22 million), which collectively had a net adverse impact of $0.04. EPS for the prior year included restructuring and impairment charges ($492 million), a non-cash gain in connection with the merger of Lifetime Entertainment Services (Lifetime) and A&E Television Networks (A&E) ($228 million), and a gain on the sale of investments in two pay television services in Latin America ($114 million), which collectively had a net adverse impact of $0.06. The gains mentioned above are recorded in “Other Income” in the Consolidated Statements of Income. Excluding these items, EPS for the year increased 14% to $2.07 from $1.82 in the prior year.

The current quarter included restructuring and impairment charges ($58 million), which adversely impacted EPS by $0.02. The prior-year quarter included the gain related to the A&E/Lifetime transaction and restructuring and impairment charges ($166 million), which collectively benefited EPS by $0.01. Excluding these items, EPS for the quarter was $0.45 compared to $0.46 in the prior-year quarter.

SEGMENT RESULTS

The following table summarizes the full year and fourth quarter segment operating results for fiscal 2010 and 2009 (in millions):

 

     Year Ended           Quarter Ended        
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    Change     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    Change  

Revenues:

            

Media Networks

   $ 17,162      $ 16,209        6   $ 4,414      $ 4,725        (7 )% 

Parks and Resorts

     10,761        10,667        1     2,819        2,844        (1 )% 

Studio Entertainment

     6,701        6,136        9     1,591        1,495        6

Consumer Products

     2,678        2,425        10     730        646        13

Interactive Media

     761        712        7     188        157        20
                                    
   $ 38,063      $ 36,149        5   $ 9,742      $ 9,867        (1 ) % 
                                    

Segment operating income (loss):

            

Media Networks

   $ 5,132      $ 4,765        8   $ 1,217      $ 1,485        (18 )% 

Parks and Resorts

     1,318        1,418        (7 )%      316        344        (8 ) % 

Studio Entertainment

     693        175        >100     104        (13     >100

Consumer Products

     677        609        11     184        151        22

Interactive Media

     (234     (295     21     (104     (114     9
                                    
   $ 7,586      $ 6,672        14   $ 1,717      $ 1,853        (7 ) % 
                                    

 

2


 

Media Networks

Media Networks revenues for the year increased 6% to $17.2 billion and segment operating income increased 8% to $5.1 billion. The following table provides further detail of the Media Networks results (in millions):

 

     Year Ended            Quarter Ended         
     October 2,
2010
     October 3,
2009
     Change     October 2,
2010
     October 3,
2009
     Change  

Revenues:

                

Cable Networks

   $ 11,475       $ 10,555         9   $ 3,129       $ 3,336         (6 )% 

Broadcasting

     5,687         5,654         1     1,285         1,389         (7 )% 
                                        
   $ 17,162       $ 16,209         6   $ 4,414       $ 4,725         (7 )% 
                                        

Segment operating income:

                

Cable Networks

   $ 4,473       $ 4,260         5   $ 1,070       $ 1,483         (28 )% 

Broadcasting

     659         505         30     147         2         >100
                                        
   $ 5,132       $ 4,765         8   $ 1,217       $ 1,485         (18 )% 
                                        

Cable Networks

Operating income at Cable Networks increased $213 million to $4.5 billion for the year due to growth at ESPN and the international Disney Channels, partially offset by a decrease in cable equity income. The increase at ESPN reflected higher affiliate and advertising revenue, partially offset by higher programming and production and general and administrative costs. Higher affiliate revenue was due to contractual rate increases and subscriber growth, partially offset by the impact of one fewer week of operations. Subscriber growth was driven by the launch of a new network in the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. The increase in advertising revenue was primarily due to higher sold inventory. Higher programming and production costs were driven by the new network in the United Kingdom, coverage of the World Cup and increased contractual costs for college basketball, NFL and college football programming. Higher operating income at the international Disney Channels was due to increased affiliate revenue driven by subscriber growth and higher advertising revenue.

Decreased cable equity income was driven by a $58 million charge for our share of programming writeoffs at A&E/Lifetime that were recorded in the fourth quarter of the current year.

For the quarter, operating income at Cable Networks decreased by $413 million to $1.1 billion due to a decrease at ESPN and lower cable equity income driven by the programming writeoffs at A&E/Lifetime. The decrease at ESPN was due to the timing of recognition of previously deferred revenues, the impact of one fewer week of operations and higher programming and production costs. During the quarter, ESPN recognized $170 million of previously deferred revenue compared to $524 million in the prior year quarter. These decreases were partially offset by higher affiliate fees driven by contractual rate increases and subscriber growth and increased advertising revenues due to higher sold inventory.

 

3


 

Broadcasting

Operating income at Broadcasting increased $154 million to $659 million for the year driven by higher advertising revenue at the owned television stations, the absence of a bad debt charge in connection with the bankruptcy of a syndication customer, lower programming and production costs at the ABC Television Network and an improvement in net affiliate fees. Lower programming and production costs reflected cost savings at news and daytime and a lower cost mix of programming in primetime. These increases were partially offset by higher pension and postretirement medical costs, lower domestic television syndication results due to the prior-year sales of According to Jim and Grey’s Anatomy and decreased advertising revenue at the ABC Television Network. Decreased advertising revenue at the ABC Television Network was due to lower ratings and the impact of one fewer week of operations, partially offset by improved rates.

For the quarter, operating income at Broadcasting increased $145 million to $147 million driven by decreased programming and production costs at the ABC Television Network, higher advertising and an improvement in net affiliate fees, partially offset by higher pension and postretirement medical costs. Lower programming and production costs at the ABC Television Network reflected a lower cost mix of programming in primetime, cost savings in daytime and news production, decreased sports programming costs and the impact of one less week of operations. Higher advertising revenues were driven by improved primetime ratings at the ABC Television Network and growth at the owned television stations, partially offset by the impact of one less week of operations. Decreased revenues for the quarter reflected lower sales of ABC Studios productions primarily due to the prior-year domestic syndication sales of According to Jim and Grey’s Anatomy. This revenue decline was largely offset by reduced production cost amortization including the impact of a lower average production cost amortization rate for productions sold in the current quarter.

Parks and Resorts

Parks and Resorts revenues for the year increased 1% to $10.8 billion and segment operating income decreased 7% to $1.3 billion. For the quarter, revenues decreased 1% to $2.8 billion and segment operating income decreased 8% to $316 million. Results for the year and quarter reflected a decrease at our domestic operations, partially offset by improved results at our international operations.

For the year, decreased operating income at our domestic operations was due to higher costs at our domestic resorts, lower hotel occupancy and attendance at Walt Disney World Resort and a decrease at Disney Cruise Line, partially offset by higher guest spending at our domestic resorts, primarily due to higher average ticket prices and increased attendance at Disneyland Resort. Increased costs at our domestic resorts reflected labor cost inflation, higher pension and post-retirement medical expenses and costs for new guest offerings including World of Color at Disneyland Resort. The decrease at Disney Cruise Line reflected increased operating costs to support the fleet expansion and lower passenger cruise days including the impact of scheduled dry-dock maintenance. Results for the current year at our domestic operations were adversely impacted by having one less week of operations than in the prior year.

 

4


 

Increased results at our international operations reflected improvement at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort driven by increased attendance, guest spending, and hotel occupancy and an increase at Disneyland Paris due to higher guest spending and a sale of a real estate property, partially offset by lower attendance. Higher guest spending at both resorts was driven by higher average ticket prices and average daily hotel room rates.

For the quarter, lower operating income at our domestic operations reflected higher costs at our domestic resorts and lower results at Disney Vacation Club, partially offset by higher guest spending at our domestic resorts driven by an increase in average ticket prices and higher food and beverage spending. Increased costs reflected labor cost inflation and higher pension and post-retirement medical expenses. The decrease at Disney Vacation Club reflected lower ownership sales of vacation club units and decreased revenue recognition due to the timing of completion of vacation club properties. Results for the current quarter at our domestic operations were adversely impacted by having one less week of operations than in the prior-year quarter.

Higher operating income at our international resorts reflected increased attendance and guest spending at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris. Increased guest spending at both resorts was driven by higher average daily hotel room rates and an increase in average ticket prices.

Studio Entertainment

Studio Entertainment revenues for the year increased 9% to $6.7 billion and segment operating income increased from $175 million to $693 million. For the quarter, revenues increased 6% to $1.6 billion and segment operating income increased $117 million to $104 million. Higher operating income for the year was primarily due to improvements in our worldwide theatrical and domestic home entertainment results, partially offset by higher film cost write-downs.

The improvement in worldwide theatrical results reflected the strong performance of Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland and Iron Man 2 in the current year. Significant titles in the prior year included Up, The Proposal and Bolt.

The increase in domestic home entertainment was primarily due to lower distribution and marketing expenses resulting from cost reduction initiatives. Key current-year releases included Up, Alice in Wonderland and Princess and the Frog while the prior year included WALL-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Bolt.

For the quarter, higher operating income was driven by an increase in worldwide theatrical distribution due to the strong international performance of Toy Story 3.

Consumer Products

Consumer Products revenues for the year increased 10% to $2.7 billion and segment operating income increased 11% to $677 million. For the quarter, revenues increased 13% to $730 million and segment operating income increased 22% to $184 million.

 

5


 

The increase in segment operating income for the year was primarily due to higher licensing revenue driven by the strength of Toy Story and Marvel merchandise, higher comparable store sales at the Disney Store in North America and Europe, lower costs at the Disney Store North America and an increase at Publishing driven by Marvel titles. These increases were partially offset by a higher revenue share with the Studio Entertainment segment and operating costs and intangible asset amortization associated with Marvel. Lower costs at the Disney Store North America reflected the benefit of an improved global purchasing strategy. The increased revenue share with the Studio Entertainment segment was primarily due to growth from Toy Story merchandise.

For the quarter, higher operating income reflected licensing revenue growth driven by the strength of Toy Story and Marvel merchandise, an improvement at the worldwide Disney Store including the benefit of the global purchasing strategy and an increase at publishing driven by Marvel titles. These increases were partially offset by a higher revenue share with the Studio Entertainment segment and operating costs and intangible asset amortization associated with Marvel.

Interactive Media

Interactive Media revenues for the year increased 7% to $761 million and operating results improved 21% to a loss of $234 million. For the quarter, revenues increased 20% to $188 million and operating results improved 9% to a loss of $104 million.

Improved operating results for the year were primarily due to lower cost of sales on self–published video games, increased subscribers at our mobile phone service business in Japan, and higher Club Penguin subscription revenue. Lower video game cost of sales reflected a sales mix shift from higher cost new releases, which included bundled accessories, in the prior year to lower cost catalog titles in the current year.

For the quarter, improved operating results were primarily due to higher net effective pricing on self-published video games driven by Toy Story 3, and increased subscribers at our mobile phone service business in Japan.

The improvements for both the year and the quarter were partially offset by the inclusion of results for Playdom in the current quarter which reflected the impact of purchase accounting.

OTHER FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Restructuring and Impairment Charges

The Company recorded $270 million of restructuring and impairment charges in the current year related to organizational and cost structure initiatives primarily at our Studio Entertainment and Media Networks segments. Restructuring charges

 

6


of $138 million, of which $55 million were recorded in the current quarter, were primarily for severance and other related costs. Impairment charges of $132 million, of which $3 million were recorded in the current quarter, consisted of writeoffs of capitalized costs primarily related to abandoned film projects, the closure of a studio production facility and the closure of five ESPN Zone locations.

In the prior year, the Company recorded charges totaling $492 million which included impairment charges of $279 million (of which $142 million related to radio FCC licenses) and restructuring costs of $213 million. During the prior-year quarter, the Company recorded charges totaling $166 million which included impairment charges of $73 million (of which $34 million related to radio FCC licenses) and restructuring costs of $93 million.

Net Interest Expense

Net interest expense was as follows (in millions):

 

     Year Ended     Quarter Ended  
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
 

Interest expense

   $ (456   $ (588   $ (88   $ (136

Interest and investment income

     47        122        1        12   
                                

Net interest expense

   $ (409   $ (466   $ (87   $ (124
                                

The decrease in interest expense for the year was primarily due to lower effective interest rates and lower average debt balances, partially offset by expense related to the early redemption of a film financing borrowing. For the quarter, the decrease in interest expense reflected lower average debt balances.

The decrease in interest and investment income for the year was primarily due to a gain on the sale of an investment in the prior-year third quarter, lower effective interest rates and lower average cash balances.

Income Taxes

The effective income tax rate is as follows:

 

     Year Ended     Quarter Ended  
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
 

Effective Income Tax Rate

     34.9     36.2     32.6     35.3

The decrease in the effective income tax rate for the year was primarily due to favorable adjustments related to prior-year income tax matters, partially offset by a charge related to the health care reform legislation enacted in March 2010. For the quarter, the reduction in the effective income tax rate was driven by favorable adjustments related to prior-year income tax matters.

 

7


 

Noncontrolling Interests

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests for the year increased $48 million to $350 million and for the quarter decreased $48 million to $131 million. The increase for the year was driven by improved operating results at Hong Kong Disneyland and ESPN. The decrease for the quarter was primarily due to lower operating results at ESPN, partially offset by improved operating results at Hong Kong Disneyland. The net income attributable to noncontrolling interests is determined based on income after royalties, financing costs and income taxes.

Cash Flow

Cash provided by operations and free cash flow were as follows (in millions):

 

     Year Ended        
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    Change  

Cash provided by operations

   $ 6,578      $ 5,319      $ 1,259   

Investments in parks, resorts and other property

     (2,110     (1,753     (357
                        

Free cash flow (1)

   $ 4,468      $ 3,566      $ 902   
                        

 

  (1)

Free cash flow is not a financial measure defined by GAAP. See the discussion of non-GAAP financial measures that follows below.

The increase in cash provided by operations for the year was driven by higher operating cash receipts at our Media Networks, Parks and Resorts and Studio Entertainment businesses and lower cash payments at our Studio Entertainment segment, driven by a decrease in distribution and marketing expense, partially offset by higher income tax payments. The increase in cash receipts for our Media Networks and Studio Entertainment segments was driven by higher revenues, while the increase in cash receipts at Parks and Resorts was driven by the timing of advance travel deposits.

The increase in capital expenditures for the year reflected higher construction progress payments on two new cruise ships, the expansion at Hong Kong Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, and the construction of a Disney Vacation Club Resort in Hawaii.

 

8


 

Capital Expenditures and Depreciation Expense

Investments in parks, resorts and other property were as follows (in millions):

 

     Year Ended  
     October 2,
2010
     October 3,
2009
 

Media Networks

     

Cable Networks

   $ 132       $ 151   

Broadcasting

     92         143   
                 

Total Media Networks

     224         294   
                 

Parks and Resorts

     

Domestic

     1,295         1,039   

International

     238         143   
                 

Total Parks and Resorts

     1,533         1,182   
                 

Studio Entertainment

     102         135   

Consumer Products

     97         46   

Interactive Media

     17         21   

Corporate

     137         75   
                 

Total investments in parks, resorts and other property

   $ 2,110       $ 1,753   
                 

 

Depreciation expense is as follows (in millions):

 

  

     Year Ended  
     October 2,
2010
     October 3,
2009
 

Media Networks

     

Cable Networks

   $ 118       $ 108   

Broadcasting

     95         89   
                 

Total Media Networks

     213         197   
                 

Parks and Resorts

     

Domestic

     807         822   

International

     332         326   
                 

Total Parks and Resorts

     1,139         1,148   
                 

Studio Entertainment

     56         50   

Consumer Products

     33         29   

Interactive Media

     19         28   

Corporate

     142         128   
                 

Total depreciation expense

   $ 1,602       $ 1,580   
                 

 

9


 

Borrowings

Total borrowings and net borrowings are detailed below (in millions):

 

     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    Change  

Current portion of borrowings

   $ 2,350      $ 1,206      $ 1,144   

Long-term borrowings

     10,130        11,495        (1,365
                        

Total borrowings

     12,480        12,701        (221

Less: cash and cash equivalents

     (2,722     (3,417     695   
                        

Net borrowings (1)

   $ 9,758      $ 9,284      $ 474   
                        

 

  (1)

Net borrowings is a non-GAAP financial measure. See the discussion of non-GAAP financial measures that follows.

The total borrowings shown above include $2,586 million and $2,868 million attributable to Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort as of October 2, 2010 and October 3, 2009, respectively. Cash and cash equivalents attributable to Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort totaled $657 million and $606 million as of October 2, 2010 and October 3, 2009, respectively.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This earnings release presents earnings per share excluding the impact of certain items, net borrowings, free cash flow, and aggregate segment operating income, all of which are important financial measures for the Company but are not financial measures defined by GAAP.

These measures should be reviewed in conjunction with the relevant GAAP financial measures and are not presented as alternative measures of earnings per share, borrowings, cash flow or net income as determined in accordance with GAAP. Net borrowings, free cash flow, and aggregate segment operating income as we have calculated them may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

Earnings per share excluding certain items – The Company uses earnings per share excluding certain items to evaluate the performance of the Company’s operations exclusive of certain items that impact the comparability of results from period to period. The Company believes that information about earnings per share exclusive of these impacts is useful to investors, particularly where the impact of the excluded items is significant in relation to reported earnings, because the measure allows for comparability between periods of the operating performance of the Company’s business and allows investors to evaluate the impact of these items separately from the impact of the operations of the business. The following table reconciles reported earnings per share to earnings per share excluding certain items:

 

10


 

     Year Ended           Quarter Ended        
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    Change     October 2,
2010
     October 3,
2009
    Change  

Diluted EPS as reported

   $ 2.03      $ 1.76        15   $ 0.43       $ 0.47        (9 )% 

Exclude:

             

Restructuring and impairment charges

     0.09        0.17        (47 )%      0.02         0.06        (67 )% 

Other income (1)

     (0.05     (0.11     55     —           (0.07     nm   
                                     

Diluted EPS excluding certain items

   $ 2.07      $ 1.82        14   $ 0.45       $ 0.46        (2 )% 
                                     

 

  (1)

Other income for the current year consists of gains on the sales of our investments in television services in Europe in the first and second quarters, an accounting gain related to the acquisition of the Disney Stores in Japan in the second quarter, and a gain on the sale of the Power Rangers property in the third quarter. Other income for the prior year consists of a non-cash gain in connection with the merger of Lifetime and A&E in the fourth quarter and a gain on the sale of an investment in two pay television services in Latin America in the first quarter.

Net borrowings – The Company believes that information about net borrowings provides investors with a useful perspective on our financial condition. Net borrowings reflect the subtraction of cash and cash equivalents from total borrowings. Since we earn interest income on our cash balances that offsets a portion of the interest expense we pay on our borrowings, net borrowings can be used as a measure to gauge net interest expense. In addition, a portion of our cash and cash equivalents is available to repay outstanding indebtedness when the indebtedness matures or when other circumstances arise. However, we may not immediately apply cash and cash equivalents to the reduction of debt, nor do we expect that we would use all of our available cash and cash equivalents to repay debt in the ordinary course of business.

Free cash flow – The Company uses free cash flow (cash provided by operations less investments in parks, resorts and other property), among other measures, to evaluate the ability of its operations to generate cash that is available for purposes other than capital expenditures. Management believes that information about free cash flow provides investors with an important perspective on the cash available to service debt, make strategic acquisitions and investments and pay dividends or repurchase shares.

Aggregate segment operating income – The Company evaluates the performance of its operating segments based on segment operating income, and management uses aggregate segment operating income as a measure of the performance of operating businesses separate from non-operating factors. The Company believes that information about aggregate segment operating income assists investors by allowing them to evaluate changes in the operating results of the Company’s portfolio of businesses separate from non-operational factors that affect net income, thus providing separate insight into both operations and the other factors that affect reported results.

 

11


 

A reconciliation of segment operating income to net income is as follows (in millions):

 

     Year Ended     Quarter Ended  
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
 

Segment operating income

   $ 7,586      $ 6,672      $ 1,717      $ 1,853   

Corporate and unallocated shared expenses

     (420     (398     (138     (130

Restructuring and impairment charges

     (270     (492     (58     (166

Other income

     140        342        —          228   

Net interest expense

     (409     (466     (87     (124
                                

Income before income taxes

     6,627        5,658        1,434        1,661   

Income taxes

     (2,314     (2,049     (468     (587
                                

Net income

   $ 4,313      $ 3,609      $ 966      $ 1,074   
                                

CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION

In conjunction with this release, The Walt Disney Company will host a conference call today, November 11, 2010, at 4:30 PM EST/1:30 PM PST via a live Webcast. To access the Webcast go to www.disney.com/investors. The discussion will be available via replay through November 18, 2010 at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST.

 

12


 

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Management believes certain statements in this earnings release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are made on the basis of management’s views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance as of the time the statements are made. Management does not undertake any obligation to update these statements.

Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Such differences may result from actions taken by the Company, including restructuring or strategic initiatives (including capital investments or asset acquisitions or dispositions), as well as from developments beyond the Company’s control, including:

 

   

changes in domestic and global economic conditions, competitive conditions and consumer preferences

 

   

adverse weather conditions or natural disasters;

 

   

health concerns;

 

   

international, political, or military developments; and

 

   

technological developments.

Such developments may affect travel and leisure businesses generally and may, among other things, affect:

 

   

the performance of the Company’s theatrical and home entertainment releases;

 

   

the advertising market for broadcast and cable television programming;

 

   

expenses of providing medical and pension benefits;

 

   

demand for our products; and

 

   

performance of some or all company businesses either directly or through their impact on those who distribute our products.

Additional factors are set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 3, 2009 under Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and subsequent reports.

 

13


 

The Walt Disney Company

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

(unaudited; in millions, except per share data)

 

     Year Ended     Quarter Ended  
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
    October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
 

Revenues

   $ 38,063      $ 36,149      $ 9,742      $ 9,867   

Costs and expenses

     (31,337     (30,452     (8,221     (8,272

Restructuring and impairment charges

     (270     (492     (58     (166

Other income

     140        342        —          228   

Net interest expense

     (409     (466     (87     (124

Equity in the income of investees

     440        577        58        128   
                                

Income before income taxes

     6,627        5,658        1,434        1,661   

Income taxes

     (2,314     (2,049     (468     (587
                                

Net income

     4,313        3,609        966        1,074   

Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests

     (350     (302     (131     (179
                                

Net income attributable to The Walt Disney Company (Disney)

   $ 3,963      $ 3,307      $ 835      $ 895   
                                

Earnings per share attributable to Disney:

        

Diluted

   $ 2.03      $ 1.76      $ 0.43      $ 0.47   
                                

Basic

   $ 2.07      $ 1.78      $ 0.44      $ 0.48   
                                

Weighted average number of common and common equivalent shares outstanding:

        

Diluted

     1,948        1,875        1,941        1,885   
                                

Basic

     1,915        1,856        1,909        1,859   
                                

 

14


 

The Walt Disney Company

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(unaudited; in millions, except per share data)

 

     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
 

ASSETS

    

Current assets

    

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 2,722      $ 3,417   

Receivables

     5,784        4,854   

Inventories

     1,442        1,271   

Television costs

     678        631   

Deferred income taxes

     1,018        1,140   

Other current assets

     581        576   
                

Total current assets

     12,225        11,889   

Film and television costs

     4,773        5,125   

Investments

     2,513        2,554   

Parks, resorts and other property, at cost

    

Attractions, buildings and equipment

     32,875        32,475   

Accumulated depreciation

     (18,373     (17,395
                
     14,502        15,080   

Projects in progress

     2,180        1,350   

Land

     1,124        1,167   
                

Total parks, resorts and other property, at cost

     17,806        17,597   

Intangible assets, net

     5,081        2,247   

Goodwill

     24,100        21,683   

Other assets

     2,708        2,022   
                
   $ 69,206      $ 63,117   
                

LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY

    

Current liabilities

    

Accounts payable and other accrued liabilities

   $ 6,109      $ 5,616   

Current portion of borrowings

     2,350        1,206   

Unearned royalties and other advances

     2,541        2,112   
                

Total current liabilities

     11,000        8,934   

Borrowings

     10,130        11,495   

Deferred income taxes

     2,630        1,819   

Other long-term liabilities

     6,104        5,444   

Commitments and contingencies

    

Disney Shareholders’ equity

    

Preferred stock, $.01 par value

    

Authorized – 100 million shares, Issued – none

     —          —     

Common stock, $.01 par value

    

Authorized – 4.6 billion shares at October 2, 2010 and 3.6 billion shares at October 3, 2009, Issued – 2.7 billion shares and 2.6 billion shares at October 2, 2010 and October 3, 2009, respectively

     28,736        27,038   

Retained earnings

     34,327        31,033   

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

     (1,881     (1,644
                
     61,182        56,427   

Treasury stock, at cost, 803.1 million shares at October 2, 2010 and 781.7 million shares at October 3, 2009

     (23,663     (22,693
                

Total Disney Shareholders’ equity

     37,519        33,734   

Noncontrolling interests

     1,823        1,691   
                

Total equity

     39,342        35,425   
                
   $ 69,206      $ 63,117   
                

 

15


 

The Walt Disney Company

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(unaudited; in millions)

 

     Year Ended  
     October 2,
2010
    October 3,
2009
 

OPERATING ACTIVITIES

    

Net income

   $ 4,313      $ 3,609   

Depreciation and amortization

     1,713        1,631   

Gains on dispositions

     (118     (342

Deferred income taxes

     133        323   

Equity in the income of investees

     (440     (577

Cash distributions received from equity investees

     473        505   

Net change in film and television costs

     238        (43

Equity-based compensation

     522        457   

Impairment charges

     132        279   

Other

     (122     (67

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

    

Receivables

     (686     468   

Inventories

     (127     (117

Other assets

     42        (565

Accounts payable and other accrued liabilities

     649        (250

Income taxes

     (144     8   
                

Cash provided by operations

     6,578        5,319   
                

INVESTING ACTIVITIES

    

Investments in parks, resorts and other property

     (2,110     (1,753

Sales of investments

     —          46   

Proceeds from dispositions

     170        185   

Acquisitions

     (2,493     (176

Other

     (90     (57
                

Cash used in investing activities

     (4,523     (1,755
                

FINANCING ACTIVITIES

    

Commercial paper borrowings/(repayments), net

     1,190        (1,985

Borrowings

     —          1,750   

Reduction of borrowings

     (1,371     (1,617

Dividends

     (653     (648

Repurchases of common stock

     (2,669     (138

Exercise of stock options and other

     753        (510
                

Cash used in financing activities

     (2,750     (3,148
                

(Decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents

     (695     416   

Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of year

     3,417        3,001   
                

Cash and cash equivalents, end of year

   $ 2,722      $ 3,417   
                

 

16

EX-99.2 3 dex992.htm TRANSCRIPT OF CONFERENCE CALL OF REGISTRANT Transcript of conference call of Registrant

 

Exhibit 99.2

Transcript of conference call of the Registrant on November 11, 2010

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to The Walt Disney Company’s Fourth Quarter 2010 earnings call.

Let me begin by saying that we are aware that information regarding our fourth quarter earnings became available ahead of its formal release and we are investigating how this occurred. We do regret any confusion caused by this incident.

Our press release is now available on our website. Today’s call is also being webcast, and that webcast will be available on our website. After the call, we will post a replay and a transcript of today’s remarks to the website.

Joining me in New York for today’s call are Bob Iger, Disney’s President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jay Rasulo, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Bob will lead off, followed by Jay and then we will, of course, be happy to take your questions.

So with that, let me turn the call over to Bob.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Thank you Lowell, and good afternoon.

The 2010 fiscal year was a good one financially and strategically for our company. Performance was driven by strong branded content and the effective use of it across our businesses, resulting in a 20% jump in net income on a 5% rise in revenue. Our fourth quarter earnings grew solidly after factoring out a programming write-off at one of our equity networks, the timing of ESPN revenue recognition and the effect of one fewer week of operations this year than last. Jay will provide details in a few minutes.

Over the last year, we took several important steps to position Disney for strong growth. We appointed new leaders at our movie studio, ABC Entertainment and the Internet Group, strengthening our management team. We continued to invest in major new attractions and experiences at our Parks and Resorts segment and just last week we took a significant step towards final approval of Shanghai Disneyland. We also made two significant acquisitions: Marvel Entertainment and the social game publisher Playdom.

Marvel and Playdom strengthen the range of quality entertainment we offer and provide us new and innovative ways to deliver that entertainment to consumers. They fit strategically with our brands and with our global marketing and distribution networks, benefit a wide range of our existing businesses, and offer the potential of attractive returns on investment.

There’s no better example of what a successful acquisition can do for Disney than Toy Story 3, the number one animated movie in history, the best-reviewed movie of the year, and a strong contender for Best Picture Oscar. On top of the billion dollars in global box office it generated, Toy Story 3 drove significant business for our consumer products, interactive media and parks segments. Its success speaks volumes about our Pixar acquisition and our ability to maximize the value of great creative content across a broad range of markets.

 

1


 

We are incredibly excited about the release next summer of Cars 2, another great Pixar adventure whose characters already constitute one of our biggest and most robust consumer products franchises. With the film to be followed by the 2012 opening of our largest ever new attraction, CarsLand at Disney’s California Adventure, we believe this great animated property can drive substantial shareholder value for years to come.

Our creative pipeline is strong. At our movie studios, Tangled, Tron: Legacy, and the latest chapter of our highly successful Pirates franchise are coming in fiscal 2011, as are two new Marvel epics, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Our Parks and Resorts segment is also unveiling compelling new attractions and experiences. Since it opened last summer, World of Color, an amazing nighttime spectacular at California Adventure, has driven a 20% increase in attendance at that park. Once our Little Mermaid attraction and Cars Land open in the next couple of years, the new California Adventure will stand proudly alongside Disneyland, making our Anaheim resort an even more attractive family destination.

Our cruise business has delivered double-digit returns and has enhanced our reputation for delivering unparalleled family travel experiences. It’s notable that Disney Cruise Line was just named the best in the world by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler. And that’s before the first of our two magnificent new ships, the Disney Dream, makes its maiden voyage in January, taking our cruise offering to a whole new level and to new and exciting destinations.

ESPN is another great example of our strategic commitment to create quality, branded content and use technology to enhance that content and deliver it to consumers in new ways and the ways they want it.

ESPN has a simple and powerful mission: to serve sports fans wherever sports are watched, listened to, discussed, debated, read about or played. And that’s exactly what it does. Its coverage and presentation of basketball, baseball, soccer, football, NASCAR…you name it…is gold-standard. And it has taken full advantage of technological change to provide fans a multi-platform experience that makes ESPN the number one sports media brand. Even as ESPN has expanded its digital reach, it posted its highest television ratings ever in the 2010 fiscal year.

The same holds true for ABC Family and Disney Channel, both of which also recorded their highest ever ratings in the last fiscal year.

The overall quality and innovation shown by our media networks, ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC Family and ABC, was recognized through the multi-year agreement we signed earlier this year with Time Warner Cable. The deal acknowledges the great value of our programs and brands while at the same time creating new products and services to the benefit of Disney, Time Warner and consumers.

Organic growth remains our focus but, as I remarked earlier, we’ve seen that strategic additions to our business portfolio can be beneficial. When we bought Club Penguin in 2007, Disney acquired new skills in delivering compelling, brand-appropriate stories in an entirely new way to our core audience of kids. We expect the acquisition to generate significant value to Disney, well in excess of the price we paid. Since the purchase, Club Penguin has more than doubled paying subscribers, expanded globally and spawned successful merchandise and packaged games.

While Club Penguin gave us a foothold and expertise in virtual worlds for kids, Playdom is doing the same in social games, an incredibly fast-growing area of digital entertainment. Playdom brings strategic, operational and analytical capabilities to Disney while we provide them the well-known content and brands to compete even more effectively. With the acquisition of Playdom and of Tapulous, a developer of mobile games and apps, we now have a diversified, multi-faceted game business that can deliver the full range of experiences consumers want and that allows us to continue innovating to meet their expectations. Our first game with Playdom, ESPNU Collegetown, is off to a good start.

 

2


 

Marvel provides our company with a rich portfolio of characters and stories, a talented team that has extended the reach of those characters across the publishing, licensing and movie business and a passionate fan base not unlike Disney’s. In addition to the two big movies coming this summer, Marvel has launched a new series on Disney XD, with more to come, and is developing several series for ABC and ABC Family. We bought back the marketing and distribution rights for Iron Man 3 and The Avengers and are incorporating Marvel’s licensing businesses into our global sales and marketing networks to help spawn growth.

Together these acquisitions have helped bolster Disney in important ways. They have given us great stories to work with and the right technology and analytical skills to bring those stories to consumers in new ways. The acquisitions fortify the Disney brand portfolio and our ranks of talented artists, engineers and businesspeople. And they give us new ways to build upon our unique capacity to leverage hit properties across many businesses quickly and effectively.

The brand and franchise portfolio of The Walt Disney Company is stronger than it has ever been and I’m confident of our direction and of our ability to deliver superior returns.

And with that, I’ll turn things over to Jay….

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Thanks, Bob and good afternoon everyone. I’d like to briefly review the key drivers for Q4 and highlight some of the factors that are likely to influence our results in fiscal 2011.

As I mentioned last quarter, results in our Q4 fiscal 2010 reflect one less week of operations than our Q4 fiscal 2009 results.

Overall, we are encouraged by many of the trends we’re seeing in our businesses.

At our Media segment, results at Cable Networks decreased year-over-year due to the timing of affiliate revenue recognition at ESPN, the impact of having one less week of operations versus last Q4, and lower equity income. As we said on our last call, ESPN ended up reaching most of its programming commitments in Q3 this year versus Q4 last year. As a result, ESPN recognized $354 million less in net deferred affiliate revenue in Q4 than in the prior year.

At ESPN, advertising revenue was up 19%, driven by increases in the automotive, telecommunications and financial categories. Adjusting for the impact of the extra week in last year’s Q4 as well as the relative timing of major sports events, we estimate that ESPN’s ad revenue was up by 22%.

Operating income at Cable Networks was also impacted by programming write-offs at Lifetime Network, our share of which was approximately $60 million, or roughly $0.02 of earnings per share.

At Broadcasting, while revenue was down due to lower sales of ABC-produced shows compared to prior Q4, operating income was up strongly year-over-year. Results benefited from a lower cost mix for ABC Network’s primetime schedule, cost-savings measures in Daytime and News production, and decreased sports programming costs.

Operating income also benefited from higher advertising revenues at our owned TV stations. Advertising revenue at our stations came in 15% above prior year, led by increases in the automotive, political and financial categories. Adjusted for the 53rd week, we estimate that TV stations’ ad revenue was up 26%.

Adjusted for the 53rd week, advertising revenues at the Network were also up strongly, driven by improved ratings. Network scatter pricing came in 23% above upfront levels.

Thus far in Q1, ABC Network scatter pricing is running 22% above upfront levels. Ad sales at both ESPN and our TV stations are pacing up by double digits versus prior year.

 

3


 

Turning to Studio Entertainment, the tremendous success of Toy Story 3 in international markets drove impressive growth for the segment in the fourth quarter. Studio results were impacted in the quarter by a write-off of approximately $100 million related to our film inventory at our motion capture venture, IMD.

At Parks & Resorts, margins were impacted by higher costs at our domestic parks and by lower revenue at Disney Vacation Club. The increase in domestic costs was driven by labor cost inflation and higher pension and post-retirement medical expenses. Lower revenue at Disney Vacation Club reflected lower sales as well as percentage of completion accounting. Results were also impacted by having one less week of operations compared to last year’s Q4.

Q4 attendance at our domestic parks came in 6% lower than prior year. When adjusting for the impact of the extra week, we estimate that attendance was up 1%.

Per capita guest spending was up 6%, driven by higher admissions pricing and food and beverage spending.

Average room spending at our domestic hotels was 5% above prior year levels, with a solid increase at Walt Disney World and a slight decrease at Disneyland. Occupancy at our Orlando hotels came in one percentage point below prior year levels at 83%, and Anaheim occupancy remained steady at 84%.

So far this quarter, domestic hotel reservations on the books are pacing 5% ahead of prior year.

Results at our international parks benefited from higher attendance and guest spending at both Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. Attendance was up 3% in Paris and up 26% in Hong Kong.

At Consumer Products, our licensing business performed well on the strength of our franchises, particularly Toy Story. On a comparable basis, earned licensing revenue grew 12%. Increase in the segment operating income was also driven by improved performance at our Disney Stores in North America and Europe, as well as by publishing and licensing revenue from Marvel properties.

We believe that our core franchises, including Toy Story and Cars, position us well for growth in our licensing business in fiscal 2011.

At the Interactive Media segment, results benefited from higher revenue for our video games, particularly Toy Story 3, and from increased subscribers to our Japan mobile service. Results were impacted by purchase accounting arising from the inclusion of Playdom.

We’re pleased with the results we delivered in fiscal 2010. The strength of our businesses and our continued focus on managing with financial discipline enabled us to deliver strong cash flow, even as we invest in initiatives that position us for the long term.

Turning to fiscal 2011, I’d like to highlight a few things that will likely influence our results. On the cost side, we expect our pension and postretirement medical expenses to increase by approximately $100 million versus fiscal 2010, due predominantly to a further reduction in the discount rate. Approximately half of this amount will impact our Parks and Resorts segment.

In addition, we expect that overall capital expenditures will increase by at least $1 billion as several of our expansion initiatives at Parks and Resorts will meet key milestones in fiscal 2011. These include the launch of our first new cruise ship, the Disney Dream, in late January, along with a variety of projects in our different parks and resorts across the globe. We are excited about these new assets and believe they will help position Disney for long-term success.

 

4


 

In addition to internal investments, we expect to continue returning capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase. During fiscal 2010, we repurchased almost 80 million shares for approximately $2.7 billion. Thus far in fiscal 2011, we’ve repurchased a little over 11 million shares for about $392 million.

As you’ve seen in our results, the current trends in our businesses are encouraging. We are also optimistic about our creative pipeline.

Thus, we believe we are well positioned to deliver strong results in 2011.

With that, I’ll turn the call back to Lowell for Q&A.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Ok. Thanks, Jay. Operator, we are ready for the first question. Thanks.

 

 

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Doug Mitchelson from Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

 

 

Doug MitchelsonAnalyst, Deutsche Bank

Oh, thanks so much. For Jay or Bob, based on our tracking we do not see a lot of sports programming renewals or new sports hitting for ESPN in Fiscal ‘11, just BCS and Rose Bowl which have a substantial amount of ad revenue attached to them. Easy compares against the World Cup. Bob you’ve mentioned ESPN should be able to continue to grow its margins. Is this one of those years where ESPN should continue to grow its margins?

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Well, your statement about sports costs is accurate. It’s primarily BCS and Rose Bowl driven and as you mentioned the World Cup comes out of Fiscal ‘11. We’re not going to give you any guidance in terms of margins but what I will say to you is that the advertising marketplace is incredibly strong for ESPN, as Jay referenced, and we’re off to a flying start on that side of the revenue equation. Obviously our ability to raise revenue from a subscription fee standpoint is subject to whatever deals were expiring have been renewed, and the only significant one was the one we announced which was Time Warner.

 

 

Doug MitchelsonAnalyst, Deutsche Bank

Right, thank you.

 

 

Lowell Singer Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Okay thanks. Operator next question please?

 

 

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jessica Reif Cohen from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please proceed.

 

5


 

Jessica Reif-CohenAnalyst, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch

Thank you. There was very little details on Shanghai. I was hoping you could elaborate a little bit more about timing and what the structure might look like, and what impact that will have on your business overall in China. And you talked about the Time Warner Cable deal a few times, but could you give us some sense of what affiliate fee growth will look like over the next year or so?

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

We’re purposely going to save the details for Shanghai for a time when we have full approval. We signed a long term agreement, I’m sorry, a long form agreement with the Shanghai Government which was a significant step, and there remains one more significant step and that’s approval from the Beijing government. It’s been generally reported or estimated it will take approximately five years to build and that’s about the only detail that I would confirm as being correct. The details in terms of the nature of our ownership and other details about the project itself, we’re going to save for the possibility of a formal announcement.

On the Time Warner side, Jessica, we don’t give details. It was a deal that I think was very good, not only for both sides, but also for consumers. We created a lot of compelling new products for subscribers of Time Warner Cable, including authentication of ESPN and enabling Time Warner subscribers to in effect consume ESPN on a best available screen basis, and also put into the marketplace a few specific products for ESPN like The Red Zone which we think strengthen the relationship with Time Warner and strengthen the overall multi-channel package that consumers will offer. Obviously the deal reflects as I said in my remarks the considerable value that we provide not only to Time Warner Cable but to its customers, with ABC and ABC stations and retransmission consent, ABC Family, Disney Channel and the array of ESPN networks, many of which had record ratings in 2010.

 

 

Jessica Reif-CohenAnalyst, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch

Can I just throw in one last one? The balance sheet is so strong. Is there anything else you could say in terms of returning capital to shareholders or what you might do and do you have a target leverage?

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Well, you know, obviously, I’ll just reiterate what I said. We’ve repurchased 11 million shares this fiscal year to-date and we continue to look for the opportunity to use share repurchase to give returns to our shareholders when we see the appropriate difference between our own opinion of the value of the company and what the stock is trading on in the market so we continue to look at it as a tool for increasing shareholder return and I don’t really want to give you too much guidance beyond that for the future.

 

 

Jessica Reif-CohenAnalyst, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch

Okay, thank you.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Thanks, Jessica. Next question, Operator?

 

 

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Swinburne from Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

 

6


 

Ben SwinburneAnalyst, Morgan Stanley

Thanks, good afternoon. A couple of questions I just wanted to go back to Marvel and Playdom on the dilution front. Jay, I think you guys gave some guidance on both when you announced the deals. Just wanted to see, particularly on Marvel now that we’re a few quarters in, how that’s tracking versus expectations, I think Iron Man 2 maybe was a little bit ahead of expectations, but just wanted to see if there’s any change to the dilution and then ultimately accretion estimate that you gave us back when you announced the transaction.

And then Bob, you’ve made a lot of changes at the studio from a management perspective, particularly collapsing a lot of the distribution and window layers that you had created or that were in place before. I’m just trying to see if you could talk about where that would show up in the financial results over time. And if there’s anything you’ve learned from the Toy Story 3 release, good, bad, or otherwise, about how you’re doing so far. I know it’s early days with those changes but just any update there would be helpful.

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Yeah, on the first half of your question, on the dilution impacts, we really don’t see any, pretty much up to our expectations when we made the acquisition in terms of the impact, primarily due to the difference of the shares we issued, which I’ve already mentioned we repurchased last year, as well as let’s call it acquisition accounting. And that goes for both Marvel and Playdom.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

And Ben, I’d like to think that the success of Toy Story 3 which has been sensation, all was completely due to all of the changes we made in the restructuring, but I think it starts with the fact that Pixar made a fantastic film and getting whatever, over $1 billion, $60 million in global box office and doing nicely with DVD sales is probably largely tied to quality than anything else.

That said, the Studio made a number of changes to address a variety of different issues including the cost structure of the overall business. So if the changes that they made are to show up in results in 2011 beyond, it would largely be due to some efficiencies that they’ve created by streamlining their organization.

On top of that, when we looked at the business carefully, we noted a lot of things that we thought no longer reflected the way that we were distributing our product into the global marketplace in all windows, theatrically and what I’ll call a home video window, which is now home video and digital, and then in subsequent television windows around the world. And we tried to create an organization both in the distribution side and the marketing side that reflected how buyers and distributers are now accessing this product.

As a for instance we had multiple marketing organizations marketing this product to the sort of different layers or different platforms or windows that the product went into the marketplace, and that seemed inefficient to us. We also felt that in creating one distribution organization that, in effect, had responsibility over all windows, that they would make decisions that would be in the best interest of the property and the company overall, instead of advantaging one window over another one, in effect taking competition out of our internal structure that might have gotten in the way of maximizing value particularly as consumer behavior changes and technology changes the way product is windowed and distributed to the world. And we did this on a global basis. I just was in London and the changes that were made in the structure of the company in London are particularly reflective of changes that we’re seeing in the overall marketplace, and the opportunity to basically look at both, not only those changes, but each product in a much more holistic way rather than in a siloed way that the old structure allowed.

 

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Ben SwinburneAnalyst, Morgan Stanley

That’s helpful, thank you.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Thanks, Ben. Operator next question please.

 

 

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Spencer Wang from Credit Suisse. Please proceed.

 

 

Spencer WangAnalyst, Credit Suisse

Thanks and good afternoon. Just two questions. First, for Bob, I was wondering if you could just talk about a Google TV and ABC situation, and do things like that maybe make you reassess your approach to how you experiment with new technology? And then just for Jay, since we’re talking about swing factors for 2011, you’ve kept the broadcasting operating costs pretty flat in 2010. Could you just give us some of the things that would affect that in 2011? Thank you.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

There’s obviously been a lot of attention paid to the variety of different subjects related to how video is brought into the marketplace whether it’s the impact or potential impact of over-the-top TV, the impact of digital distribution in general, the future of the multi-channel service, etc, so maybe I should just put some of that in perspective. I don’t think I’m going to address Google TV directly. We’ve not announced a deal with them at this point and I’m not going to say anything more specific about them. But we’ve been offering product into new services and new platforms and devices from almost the beginning.

In a way I guess we led the way because we feel and we felt then and still feel that it’s important to serve consumers on these new platforms, primarily to grow revenue and to take advantage of what’s some pretty exciting new technologies. We also think it’s important to make legitimate product available in the marketplace on a well-timed, well-priced basis to fight piracy which we don’t monetize at all. So in essence, we’ve looked at these new opportunities as incremental to revenue that we generate for these properties, as well as keeping us relevant and generally fighting piracy.

And what I said earlier about ESPN and best available screen, this is something that we’re looking at more and more across our businesses. It’s essentially saying to consumers they should be able to watch our product on the best available screen to them, and how we do that is I think pretty important in terms of our potential to create more value for these properties, whether we’re distributing it to multi-channel providers like Time Warner or whether we’re going directly to the consumer, or whether we’re doing it through services like Apple TV.

On the multi-channel front, we’ve had conversations with a few multi-channel providers very recently and we know that there are concerns about cord cutting and the impact of all of this digital distribution on their business, and the sense that we get is that the trends they’ve seen very recently, which is a slight decrease in subscription and subscribers, is due mostly to the economy and the fact they went to the marketplace a year ago with pretty low-priced offers mostly to address the economy, and as those have expired some of those consumers or subscribers have sort of fallen by the wayside.

 

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The sense that we get is that no one has any evidence, at least currently, of cord cutting. But I still think that it’s in the best interests of this company to see to it that the multi-channel business remain robust, continues to flourish, because obviously it creates so much value for us. So we’re looking at the multi-channel business in a bullish way, but we feel that we have to very carefully balance that business with our interest as a company to grow revenue on new platforms and creating new product like the one I described for ESPN, an authenticated ESPN and these other services like Buzzer Beater and Red Zone, is one way to help the multi-channel providers do that. So we’re going to continue to look for opportunities on new devices. I guess we think it improves monetization, but we’re also going to look for opportunities to strengthen our relationship with the multi-channel providers and create product that is beneficial to us, to them, and to their consumers.

 

 

Spencer WangAnalyst, Credit Suisse

Thanks, Bob.

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

The second half of your question about 2011 swing factors for ABC, obviously we’ve been talking about this year the restructuring of the news operations, some other efficiencies in ABC that happened in the course of the year. Obviously we’ll have a full year impact of some of those. I don’t want to get into details as to the numbers and what else might happen in the year.

 

 

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony DiClemente from Barclays Capital. Please proceed.

 

 

Anthony DiClementeAnalyst, Barclays Capital

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I just have one for Jay and one for Bob. Jay, you gave us a number of figures adjusting advertising revenue for the 53rd week and some of them were better, or materially better than they were for the reported quarter, so I’m just wondering do you have any of the adjusted operating income figures for particularly the media network segments when you adjust for the calendar shift? Do you have those?

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

I don’t think we’ll talk about those in detail. Every business has a different impact of the 53rd week and the way you account for it, it may be complicated so I think in the interest of clarity, I don’t really want to discuss what the impacts of any particular business are for the 53rd week effect.

 

 

Anthony DiClementeAnalyst, Barclays Capital

Okay, thought it was worth a try. Thanks anyway. And just for Bob, I wonder about the parks in terms of the amount of CapEx that the company is choosing to put into the parks. You talked about the launch cost for the cruise lines and the ‘World of Color’ impact in the quarter and CapEx going up by a billion, so how should we think about the timing of revenue that comes against those projects, and how should we just in general think about what the returns on those investments are going to be for Disney over time, as we think about them in terms of what you otherwise could have been doing with the capital, such as a buyback or an accretive acquisition. Thank you.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Well, each of the decisions in terms of increased capital commitments is made discretely, meaning separate from the other one, and I think we’ve gone through a lot of the rationale but I’ll just quickly talk about it a little bit more as it relates to return on invested capital, which is a metric that we follow very closely and is in fact a key metric in determining compensation at the company as well.

 

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On the cruise ship side, you know our returns on invested capital in that business have been stellar, in the mid teens, and it’s our goal to continue those returns in the new ships. Obviously it takes a little bit of time. We’re launching the Dream in January. There is some additional costs leading up to launch, as a for instance, but revenue doesn’t start flowing until we set sail with paying passengers. I don’t know how much detail Jay went into, but bookings for that ship have been extremely strong and we feel it’s a gorgeous ship and we feel quite good about not only the potential of that ship to deliver strong capital return on invested capital in the Caribbean but it’s going to give us the ability and flexibility for us to put the other ships eventually into new itineraries and new destinations, which we think will also be good.

California Adventure, I talk about it was a bit of a brand withdrawal as I said in a recent interview in that it was not returning value to us at a level that we would expect or hope for. We also thought that there was a negative brand impact, so we’re putting capital in to fix a problem that we’ve had for a long time, and to help grow the overall Disneyland resort. The results have been great with the World of Color but we have a lot more to deliver between now and 2012 so the revenue will flow over time. It’s already started but we won’t be seeing it in full until basically the latter part of 2012.

Hawaii was an investment that we made primarily to support a business that’s also had great returns on invested capital and that is our Vacation Club, or our time share business, where we thought that having the ability not only to sell those units directly to Disney timeshare customers, but to allow for current customers to trade points, would help us continue to deliver good returns on invested capital in that business. And I think I pretty much have covered the larger expenses.

Jay and I have both talked about the fact this is somewhat of a balloon in terms of capital expenses. There will be other projects, we’re building Hong Kong out which is relatively modest in nature, and of course the one that will be resizable is Shanghai, but that’s longer term and we will have a partner so we will not bear all of the costs, but we don’t see on the horizon anything of great significance that would cause our annual CapEx to go back up to a level that we’re looking at for 2011 for quite a while.

 

 

Anthony DiClementeAnalyst, Barclays Capital

Okay, thank you so much.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Ok, Anthony. Thanks very much. Operator next question please?

 

 

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Nathanson from Nomura. Please proceed.

 

 

Michael NathansonAnalyst, Nomura

Thanks, I have a couple. Let me start with Jay with some math. If we could put this quarter aside and deferral issue aside for a second, people want to know, what was the rate of growth in affiliated fees for the Fiscal Year 2010, so looking at the year-over-year change, how big was the affiliated fee growth for ‘10?

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

So, I agree that it was a very messy quarter, but if you back out all of the stuff, the affiliate fee growth was about 9%.

 

 

Michael NathansonAnalyst, Nomura

Okay, that’s for the year, right?

 

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Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Uh-huh.

 

 

Michael NathansonAnalyst, Nomura

And I guess I want to ask previously, looking at the next year, 2011, is there anything that suggests that growth rates will not be within that neighborhood, any deals coming up or anything unusual about that outlook?

 

 

Jay Rasulo – Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Well, Bob talked about the only major deal renegotiation that we’ve done, and also mentioned that we can’t give the details of that. But there’s nothing else extraordinary that is happening in the ESPN affiliate fees. I want to clarify one thing you said Michael. That 9% was for Q4, not for the year as a whole. Q4 is the year where all of the ins and outs occurred.

 

 

Michael NathansonAnalyst, Nomura

And excuse me for the year, because people are really scratching their heads with all of these moving pieces on an annual basis was any different than that.

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Yes, it’s 10% for the year.

 

 

Michael NathansonAnalyst, Nomura

Cool, and Jay just given your history in parks now that domestic park bookings are running up in the fourth quarter, have you found any history that there’s a positive correlation on pricing since the demand is there, so talk a little bit about the pricing scenario this quarter versus what you saw previously.

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Yeah, I mentioned in my opening remarks that we saw our bookings for the first quarter up 5% over the same quarter a year ago, and I would like to add that we have seen our average daily rate up in the mid-single digits in correlation with those increased bookings, so as we have been saying for a number of quarters, our strategy is to continue to climb back towards a more long term or normalized level of pricing, and we are on that path.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

I also think, Michael, I know we’ve said this before but we’ve always had promotions in the marketplace for Parks and Resorts, primarily for what we call shoulder periods or the times of the year that you don’t have peak travel, and we’re going to continue to do that. But what we’re seeing in the marketplace today is that even those promotions are of slightly shorter duration than they had been and slightly better pricing than they had been, and we hope that we continue to trend more in that direction.

Also on the first question that you asked Jay about affiliate revenue which he said ran 10% for the year, obviously Time Warner is a large distributer and we did new deals for all of our services, including adding retransmission consent.

 

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Now I don’t know, we don’t factor that in necessarily to affiliate fees but you can expect that with ESPN’s services and ABC Family and the Disney Channel all being renewed for basically 2011 in its entirety, that there will be increases in those rates from a large distributor. And so from an affiliate fee perspective, you should expect growth in 2011.1

 

 

Michael Nathanson – Analyst, Nomura

Okay, Bob, there’s so much noise in this deferral thing that people, the quarters whip around a lot, and people always ask the question about what’s the real rate of growth.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

I know, and last year, we had I think the opposite. Last year where we ended up, I think from fiscal ‘08 to ‘09, if I recall, we had a shift the other way around, and I realize that it does create some confusion. This is all tied to covenants that ESPN has in terms of programming that we hit at different times, and it’s really just a timing issue. It has nothing to do with the quality of our business or the specific relationship other than the one contractual provision with the distributer. So believe me, we have trouble following it ourselves.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

And we get questions on it as well, Michael. Just so you know.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Takes up a fair amount of time.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Thanks, Michael. Operator, next question.

 

 

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Imran Khan from JP Morgan. Please proceed.

 

 

Imran KhanAnalyst, JP Morgan

Yes, hi. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I have two broad industry-level questions. So Bob, I was trying to get a better update, maybe a new update, on DVD sales trend and I think as the economy was tougher we saw weakness in the DVD sales and I think there were a lot of concerns, is it’s secular versus cyclical, what kind of trends you’re seeing as our global economy is getting better.

And secondly, more of a philosophical level question. Interactive business revenues went up 20% but you still lost $104 million, and for the year you lost north of $250 million, and if you look at industry media industries are losing around $750 million in the digital business. So the big question is how should we think about the profitability of the business and does it really make sense for the creative companies to get into the internet digital business and continue to lose money, thank you.

 

1

Refers to affiliate revenue growth in 2011.

 

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Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Ok. Well, I guess I’m up on both of those. On secular versus cyclical and the overall question about DVD trends, I’ve been pretty vocal about that business, suggesting that while many believe that we are seeing cyclical trends that were due to the downturn that we thought there was secular trends that were also impacting the business due largely to just more competition for people’s time more than anything else. And I would say that while I don’t know that we’ve necessarily seen that pattern worsen, I don’t know we haven’t seen anything that would reverse it or cause me to believe that I was wrong when I made that statement.

It’s a title driven business, no question about it. I mentioned Toy Story 3 which is out on the marketplace now. If ever there’s a title that would do well, it would be Toy Story 3, particularly in the sell-through side because it’s a title that just makes a lot of sense for people who are going to let their kids watch it multiple times to own versus rent for instance. It will do quite well, I’m not going to make predictions as to what it will do, but if you were to look at the numbers for Toy Story 3, which will be extremely strong versus what films did just three, four, five years ago, you’d be sobered by those numbers. That said, there’s a larger percentage of people with each title, or good title, that’s buying Blu-ray, and in our case, multiple copies.

We’re out in the marketplace with Toy Story 3 with a premium product that is a Blu-ray DVD, a standard def DVD, a downloadable file and a streamable file or a streamable code, and that’s doing quite well. Actually represents about 80% of Blu-ray sales, meaning of the roughly 25% of units, Toy Story 3 , that are Blu-ray with good pricing, about 80% of those are buying this multi-package.

So we’ve seen pricing leverage or improvement because we’re out there offering more value to consumers, but it’s a business that I think, meaning the movie business, that we just have to watch very carefully because I don’t think even with a shift in a positive direction with the economy, you’re going to see a big bounce back to what we used to see in terms of conversion rates. Which is one of the reasons why we’ve taken a brand approach to our business with Pixar and Disney and Marvel, which we think we stand a chance of doing better than the industry average, provided we make good movies.

On the interactive front, obviously we’re quite mindful of the losses that we’ve delivered in that business, which is basically a collection of businesses. And just about a month ago we restructured from a management perspective of the business to accomplish a few things. One, we wanted to add more focus primarily, so that we could both create and implement a strategy that was designed to deliver profitability because we don’t want to be in this business if we aren’t able to make money. So we look at it two ways. On one side we’ve got a collection of games businesses and the other side we have a collection of largely dotcom businesses.

On the games front, we’ve seen a pretty big shift in games from console to what I’ll call multi-platform—everything from mobile apps to social networking games. And by putting John Pleasants to run games, not only will he focus on turning those businesses into profitability, but diversifying our presence in the business, so we’re not reliant on one platform that’s obviously facing challenges. It’s our goal not only to be profitable but obviously to get there by shifting our investment and reducing our investment too. We probably will end up investing less on the console side than we have because of the shift we’re seeing in consumption, and have a presence, albeit with probably less investment in terms of game manufacturing, on some of the newer platforms. Consumers are obviously spending time playing games, from casual games online to mobile Apps, to social networking, to console, and we felt all along that we need to be where the consumers are and we know our games work in a variety of places and we want to be there. We felt for a while that we should be both a licensor, which we do in some cases, but also a publisher, and I would say the shift that we’ve made in terms of personnel and ultimately in how we invest our money and how we distribute this product is going to continue to reflect that philosophy but in a slightly different manner.

 

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On the dotcom side, the key sites that we invest in, ESPN.com, Disney.com, ABC.com, are designed to do a few things. One, they are marketing platforms, they are brand building platforms, and they are revenue generating platforms. I’d like to get to the point where all three are run under profitable circumstances. I’d say that ESPN stands the best chance. I won’t get into specifics about ESPN’s profitability but I can tell you that sales of things like ESPN.com home screen advertising are incredibly robust, and so that’s actually a good business for us.

On the Disney side our goal is to create the ultimate Disney portal, not only to provide navigation but to provide significant forms of entertainment and that’s what Jimmy Pitaro, the new head of that business is going to do.

And then on the ABC front, we’ve got a business that’s designed to basically provide consumers with another screen experience and also help market ABC better. But I would be disappointed if we continue to lose significant amounts of money in those businesses, and if we do I would imagine we will have to redirect in some form.

 

 

Imran KhanAnalyst, JP Morgan

Thanks for taking the question.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Thanks. Operator, next question, please.

 

 

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Richard Greenfield from BTIG. Please proceed.

 

 

Rich GreenfieldAnalyst, BTIG

Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Two parts. First just a housekeeping issue for Jay. I’m just trying to figure out exactly what the organic earnings were. You mentioned that there was, and the press release mentions, a $58 million programming write-down. I think on the call you said $60 million. Just want to make sure there’s nothing else we should be aware of in terms if it’s one or the other. And it looks like $55 million of restructuring and $3 million of impairment charges, and I think Bob also mentioned $100 million studio-related write-down. So I’m just trying to figure out what were the aggregate impact on net income and what was the adjusted earnings number for the quarter from an EPS standpoint.

And then Bob, you mentioned Toy Story 3 doing very well on DVD, and was just curious if you could talk to it did 30-40% better domestically than Up and was just curious if you could give us a sense of whether you see it tracking higher than what Up did on DVD a year ago given that. Thanks.

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Okay. Let me start with what I mentioned about the $100 million write-down on our film inventory at IMD. I’m not going to get into the specifics of that but we made a decision to exit that business and the write-off we talked about is our best assessment of where we stand today at IMD. Relative to the $50 or $60 million as the numbers you threw out relative to Lifetime, there was a show write-down that was closer to $50 million and there was a couple other odds and ends that took it up closer to $60 million.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

The other part was for me and it was Toy Story 3 versus Up. Toy Story 3 has only been out in the marketplace for a week, and so it’s a little early to give you any predictions, not that we would even if they were later in the game in terms of how we’re doing domestically versus international or domestically versus

 

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how Up did. Up was a strong title, obviously but Toy Story will probably end up being a stronger title on the home video front given the fact that you’ve got substantially greater box office globally, but I don’t have the number in terms of how it’s trending versus Up on a worldwide basis.

Rich GreenfieldAnalyst, BTIG

And then just quickly, there was a $55 million restructuring and $3 million impairment. Is that an incremental $58 million above and beyond what was in the programming asset within Cable Networks, I presume?

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Yes.

 

 

Rich GreenfieldAnalyst, BTIG

So the adjusted earnings is actually, call it around $.07 higher than what you reported. Is that a fair statement?

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

If that’s what your math takes those numbers to be, yes.

 

 

Rich GreenfieldAnalyst, BTIG

The $158m and $58m. Okay, thank you very much.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Operator, next question please?

 

 

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tuna Amobi from Standard & Poor’s. Please proceed.

 

 

Tuna AmobiAnalyst, Standard & Poor’s

Thank you very much for taking the questions.Just first observation on the Hong Kong attendance, seemed like it surged upwards. I’m just kind of wondering what’s the underlying drivers of that and what percent of that traffic currently comes from Mainland China, that would be helpful.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

The numbers for Hong Kong, while they’re great, are due in part to the fact they were depressed a year ago because of the H1N1 virus scare. That said before that occurred, Hong Kong was trending in a significantly positive direction, so they were knocked off course somewhat by the virus and then came back on course. So the comparison is a little bit apples-to-oranges with a year ago and apples-to-apples a couple years ago.

And we continue to see real growth in Hong Kong visitation from local residents, from Mainland China residents and then what I’ll call “other Asia.” Mainland China represents somewhere in the neighborhood of high 30s to 40% of visitation to Hong Kong Disneyland, and we’re adding capacity for Hong Kong which is

 

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not only exciting in terms of the creativity, in fact one of them is Toy Story based and it’s going to take a few years for us to finish that project, but I think it’s well timed to take advantage of some positive visitation trends, and to also leverage our successful IP.

 

 

Tuna AmobiAnalyst, Standard & Poor’s

Regarding the Disney store, the reconception of the stores, is that something that you’re trying to rollout across the entire domestic and North America stores, or are you just kind of some select stores at this point, and an indication of how much you plan to spend there would be helpful.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Well we’re pretty excited about the new design. We just opened the new store which you should see in Times Square, but we’ll proceed with real caution. We’re using the design as a platform to greatly improve the quality of the merchandise and the presentation and we’re also using it to improve location which we’ve done quite well. Times Square, I think, is a good example of that. But we look at specialty retail as a relatively challenging business and with that in mind we’re going to be really careful and watch these results quite carefully. We’ve redesigned in the 18-19 store range, I think maybe it was around 20, and we don’t see going significantly higher fast. We’re going to wait and see how these stores do before we make any decisions about rollout. It cost us slightly above a million dollars a store for this new design. We think it’s closer to probably $1.4 for the initial stores, and that will trend down as we bring this design to more, but we’re going to be careful about this.

 

 

Tuna AmobiAnalyst, Standard & Poor’s

And lastly, Bob—

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

By the way our comp store sales are up significantly across the chain, not just with our new stores, but they are up significantly more with the redesign, which is interesting to us. Now a lot of that has to do with unbelievably strong product in the marketplace. Toy Story is clearly leading wait but the Princess line continues to be strong. Cars is very strong. Fairies is strong and we obviously have some great IP coming up to support that even more with the Tangled movie coming up and Cars 2 and Pirates and Marvel.

 

 

Tuna AmobiAnalyst, Standard & Poor’s

That’s helpful and lastly, Bob, can you update us on your views about KeyChest. You guys obviously ramping up on that and given the announcement from UltraViolet, is this something that you’re going to stick to or are we looking at it as a format war, at some point I would hope that there would be a convergence in standards. What’s your view on that?

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Well, we’re big believers in offering interoperability which is what KeyChest was designed to do. The obvious reason for that is that when people buy a file and in some form, if you give the ability to play that file on multiple devices or in multiple locations, then you’re creating more value for them. And I think lack of interoperability is an impediment or a barrier to growing digital media, so KeyChest was designed to add interoperability.

We didn’t get much buy in from the industry on it, so we’re using it for our own films and we’ve rolled it out with Toy Story 3 through a relationship with Wal-Mart and their purchase of Vudu, so if you buy the multi-pack as I cited earlier of Toy Story 3, you have the ability to stream Toy Story 3 through Vudu, which is a form of interoperability and you’ll see more of that as we rollout more titles. We are not inclined to, or

 

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expect to, enter a format war over this. I’ll quickly get out of my element if I start getting into more technological detail but there’s actually a way that KeyChest can work with the UltraViolet platform and don’t ask me for specs on that but I’m sure there are others who can give you that detail, but it’s not our goal to create a format war. It’s our goal to create product and to implement technology that ultimately creates more value to the consumer and obviously in doing so, delivers more value to the distributor and the seller whether retailer, bricks and mortar retailer, or digital retailer, and obviously to the content owner.

 

 

Tuna AmobiAnalyst, Standard & Poor’s

Thanks a lot. Thank you.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Thanks, Tuna. Operator we have time for one more question.

 

 

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of James Mitchell from Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

 

 

James Mitchell – Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Hi, great. Thank you. A couple of quick questions if I might. First of all, could you talk about the benefits of buying Viacom out of the two Marvel movies, Iron Man 3 and Avengers, especially any not obvious benefits? And secondly, just to repeat Richard’s question, I wanted to confirm the $58 million restructuring charge from Page 12 of the release, that is a separate charge from the $58 million programming charge in the cable net division on Page 3 of the release?

 

 

Jay RasuloSenior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

On the housekeeping question, yes, they both happen to be $58 million, and they are two distinct and additive numbers.

 

 

James Mitchell – Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Excellent.

 

 

Bob IgerPresident and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

The properties that we bought back the marketing and distribution rights for, Iron Man 3 and Avengers are of significant importance and potential to this company. They are both real franchises, and we felt for a while, mostly since we made the Marvel acquisition, that we would benefit from distributing ourselves. There’s just a big difference we believe, and this is not in any way meant to suggest criticism of the way Paramount handled it, but when everything is in-house, when it’s your product that you’re distributing and marketing, and when it’s done it is part of basically an overall franchise building strategy and brand building strategy for the company, that you create more value.

I said from the beginning of the Marvel acquisition that we would be invested in growing and supporting the Marvel brand, as a for instance. That’s not necessarily something that was of interest to, or value creation proposition to, a third party distributer like Paramount. They were in the business of distributing the film. We’re in the business of distributing the film, building the franchise and growing the brand and there was great value, although we were able to quantify it for ourselves. I’m not going to articulate all the ways we did that, but there’s great long-term value for us in not only controlling the marketing and the distribution, but of appreciating the kind of value that could be created when you do that.

 

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James Mitchell – Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Great. I look forward to the movies.

 

 

Lowell SingerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations, The Walt Disney Company

Thanks, James.

And thanks again everyone for joining us today. Note that a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures that were referred to on this call, to GAAP measures, can be found on our website. Let me also remind you that certain statements on this call may constitute forward-looking statements under the securities laws. We make these statements on the basis of our views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance at the time we make them, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied in light of a variety of factors, including factors contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This concludes today’s fourth quarter call. Have a good night, everybody.

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