The Walt Disney Organization is in the following businesses:

Theme parks

Disney Cruise Line

Resort properties

Movie, video and theatrical (for both children and adults)

Television broadcasting (ABC, Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Classic Sports Network, ESPN and ESPN2, E!, Lifetime and A&E networks)

Radio broadcasting (Disney Radio)

Musical recordings and sales of animation art

Anaheim Mighty Ducks NHL franchise

Anaheim Angels major league baseball franchise (25 per cent ownership)

Books and magazine publishing

Interactive software and Internet sites

The Disney Store retail shops

Visit the organizations website at https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/ to obtain additional information about its business line-up and strategy.

Based on the above listing, and the additional information from the websites, would you say that Walt Disneys business line-up reflects strategy of related diversification, unrelated diversification, or a combination of related and unrelated diversification? Fully discuss these concepts in detail and defend your arguments with examples.

You must justify and explain your answer in terms of the extent to which the value chains of Disneys different businesses seem to have competitively valuable cross-business relationships.

Marks allocation will be as follows:

3.1 Introduction (2 marks)

3.2 Discussion of the companys diversification strategies (14 marks)

3.3 Summary and conclusions (2 marks)

3.4 List of sources (2 marks)