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Exclusive: Walt Disney Co. Considers Buyout of Struggling Disneyland Paris


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Disney currently owns 40% of Euro Disney, and sources close to the Burbank, Calif., entertainment giant told TIME that serious discussions have been taking place internally about buying out the stock it doesn’t currently own. Of the remaining shares, 10% is owned by Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, and the rest is held by individual and institutional investors.

Read more: http://business.time.../#ixzz24UGPkUPY

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Personally, I think they ought to. The Walt Disney Company just loaned Euro Disney SCA 150 million Euros to finance an expansion of the perpetually-faltering, under-built Walt Disney Studios Park there. In my opinion, Disney brought on foreign operators at a time when Mr. Eisner began to cut costs across the board. That's also when he declared "no more ambitious projects." The build-em-cheap-and-build-em-fast policy that followed is what created the original Disney's California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Under new guidance, the company is correcting the mistakes from that era (obviously the complete re-creation of DCA, the three-land expansion of Hong Kong, and now a "loan" to expand WDS). That era was marked by budgeters replacing imagineers, and it appears that that practice is largely over.

At this point, The Walt Disney Company might as well be the operator of its parks (with the exception of Japan's, whose operating Oriental Land Company has proven itself even more aggressive and committed to excellence than the Walt Disney Company).

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I'd like to see that, too. When we went to Disneyland Paris, we thought it was nice...but we couldn't miss all the things that were just, well, cheaper. For instance, Rock & Roller Coaster there is not even in the same universe as the one in Florida. It honestly feels (and I hope no one takes offense) more like FoF at KI than a Disney attraction.

Out of the three Dis parks we've been to (also to DL/CA in Anaheim), it was by far our least favorite.

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  • 4 weeks later...
The Burbank entertainment giant said in a statement that the restructuring will enable the financially struggling Euro Disney SCA Group to benefit from lower interest rates and greater operational flexibility because certain restrictive debt covenants will be eliminated. Disney has a nearly 40 percent stake in Euro Disney.

http://www.labusinessjournal.com/news/2012/sep/18/disney-refinance-joint-venture-theme-park-paris/

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