Andrew Disney Vertical Integration Essay

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Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a self-made steel tycoon and one of the wealthiest businessmen of the nineteenth century. Adopting the business model of vertical integration, Carnegie not only founded the Carnegie Steel company in 1873, but was also the principal owner of the Homestead & Edgar Thompson steel works and other large steel mills by 1881. Along with opening the Scotia Iron mines to provide his own raw materials for his mills and then building a railroad to haul the ore. Moreover, he firmly believed that by controlling his source of supply of ore he would become wealthy. Additionally, Carnegie built plants around the country, using technology and methods that made manufacturing steel easier, faster and more productive. For each step …show more content…

Initially the brothers used their own employees, especially Ub Iwerks, to develop their own equipment, such as the studio paint shop to develop their own colors and the multiplane camera to create depth and dimension in their animated features. Subsequently, they used vertical integration to reduce competition in their business practices, such as the establishment of WED enterprises in 1952 to aid them in their building and construction of Disneyland theme park, Disneyland Records in 1956 to record and distribute their music, Disney Channel on cable TV in 1983 and Disney resorts and hotels at their theme park. In contrast, Bob Iger as the current CEO of the Walt Disney corporation has demonstrated horizontal integration with the acquisition of Pixar (interestingly, a company whose inception occurred between terminated Disney employees and Steve Jobs), ESPN, ABC, Pixar, Lucas Films and Marvel studio productions. However, it is the latest deal with twentieth century Fox and Disney’s acquisition of 60% its company that has created the largest stir in Hollywood. Moreover, this new deal gives Disney the market share for their new streaming channel that is expected to debut in 2019 and its gaming market, along with Sky productions, the largest media company in Europe, all of Lucas film, Star Wars distribution rights and the National Geographic