Aol’s DailyFinance website had a so-so article yesterday I wanted to share: “Apple After Steve Jobs? Disney May Hold a Clue“.
The premise is that the Walt Disney Company (then named “Walt Disney Productions”) survived after Walt Disney’s December 1966 death, and actually grew significantly in the period in which is was governed by Roy O. Disney, Walt’s older brother.
What I thought initially was the key quote:
Roy Disney not only furthered the vision he had shared with Walt, he managed Disney through some of its best years. The chart below shows Disney’s stock performance against the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the six years after Walt Disney died. By December 1972, Disney’s stock had appreciated 1,140% from December 1966. The Dow had gained only 30%.
My first thought was, “Wow, that’s a fantastic number!”
But then something caught my eye. Roy O. Disney died in December of 1971.
We all know this because Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971, and Roy had a massive stroke fewer than three months later.
Their 1,140% number is from December of 1972.
That’s sheer trickery.
Sure, in December of 1971 Disney stock was still a respectable 700-something-percent above where it was after Walt’s death, but the massive speculation after Roy O. Disney passed is where the inflated 1,140% comes from. Investors, quite honestly, though the company was going up for sale or auction now that both founding brothers were gone.
Could they be more blatant with their goofy numbers?
As far as Apple goes: A) Steve Jobs has no brother, so this comparison is lame, B) Steve Jobs was missing from Apple for a decade between 1985 and 1996 and the company damn-near went bankrupt, and C) since his return Jobs has groomed the COO, Tim Cook, as possible-future-leader – in fact, right now he’s acting-CEO – so they do have a succession plan.
Stupid article.
