Imagineers - The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is one which surely has touched many of our lives right from our childhood days, known for their art of storytelling along with creating a happy moments through their animations, movies or even physically experiencing via DisneyLand theme parks, where for even small moments you forget all the problems in your life and get immersed in their stories. You might have been confused with the title which includes a term Imagineers rather than Engineers, it's not a mistake, people who work in the creative department are called Imagineers because finally its their imagination which brings these stories to life.

Started by the iconic founder Walt Disney a man whose creativity and vision knew no bounds and managed to achieve many firsts during the time of no iPhones or Digital computers , a man who is a recipient of 22 Academy awards and a whopping 59 Academy nominations, surely he was the best story teller this world has known. Apart from creating iconic cartoon characters he also built the Disney Land theme parks which at that time was very futuristic and unheard of. Now Disney Land is in many countries where millions of people line up everyday to be happy and relive their childhood memories. Many of our childhoods were shaped with the classic stories of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, The Duck Tales, Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella, Lion King among others.

People today don't realise that Disney still occupies a place in our living rooms and our hearts in the age of Game of Thrones and Netflix titles thanks to the acquisitions by its outgoing CEO Bob Iger. He truly transformed and diversified the company with his bold acquisitions.

You don't realise it because even after the acquisitions, the acquired companies operated with the fundamentals they were built on, that's what made them unique and a value add, Bob and Disney respected that.

Here's a list of acquisitions which you will definitely know, acquired under the leadership of Bob Iger who made The Walt Disney Company a truly diversified company.

Disney acquired Pixar and the acquired company is now called Disney-Pixar, it is the company Steve Jobs owned, nurtured and is the creator of many iconic titles like Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Cars, Toy Story, UP. Many of them went on to become so popular that their sequels were also created and eventually turned out to be money spinners for Disney-Pixar. Bob says that when he went to Steve with offer to buy Pixar, he never thought that Steve would agree but it finally happened after several meetings and with word that the essence and legacy of Pixar would be allowed to carry forward even after the acquisition.

Disney then acquired Marvel Entertainment, yes the same company which introduced us to the most iconic super heroes of all time like The Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and many more.Bob Iger says that he's proud of producing The Black Panther Movie inspite of many apprehensions by people who were not sure that a large scale movie with a superhero from the black community would receive such an opening, it went to make a whopping $1.4 Billion, before the movie it was predominantly the superhero's from the white community who were portrayed. This film is much more than a movie it changed the perception of many people in the world and gave hope to millions who are discriminated.

Disney also went on to acquire the iconic Star Wars saga from George Lucas who created it.

Disney's biggest acquisition to date is the 21st Century Fox founded by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, its the same company which owns the Star Network in our country among many more crowned jewels in the world of entertainment. Recently the two companies merged their online streaming platform i.e. Hotstar with Disney+.

The Walt Disney Company is one of the iconic companies in the world which is still strong in the face of disruptions, a company which has seen many ups and downs, the pioneers of the animation and technologies used to tell us the stories in our living rooms or the large screen theatres.They managed to do this by imagination, vision and innovation of the people who worked relentlessly to make this vision into a resounding realitty.

.