Third Point founder Daniel Loeb has cooled on his plan to see Disney’s sports broadcaster ESPN spun off into its own standalone business, according to reports.
Third Point founder Daniel Loeb has cooled on his plan to see Disney’s sports broadcaster ESPN spun off into its own standalone business, according to reports.
Last month, the activist investor submitted a set of demands to Disney, including the ESPN plan, after his New York-based hedge fund acquired a $1 billion stake in the entertainment giant. Other proposals included accelerating the timetable for acquiring Comcast’s minority stake in Hulu, and fully integrating Hulu into Disney.
But Loeb appears to have changed his mind on EPSN tweeting recently that he now has a “better understanding” of ESPN’s value to Disney and that it will be “generating considerable synergies as part of” the broader company.
A number of analysts had argued that Loeb’s initial ESPN demand would make little strategic sense.
