After Maker Studios Acquisition, Disney’s Other Video Business Tries to Chart New Path
Disney’s digital video business is more than Maker Studios, the YouTube network it agreed to buy in March for $950 million.
But until Disney bought Maker, the entertainment giant was relatively quiet in web video. That business mostly belonged to Disney Interactive, the smallest of the company’s five business lines and primarily a video game business at that. Game sales and subscriptions accounted for 74% of the $268 million in revenue that Disney Interactive generated in the first quarter of this year.
Squeezing out profits, however, has been a challenge, and Disney Interactive has eliminated hundreds of gaming jobs in the past year. In March the division laid off 700 more employees — more than a quarter of its workforce.
