The Walt Disney Company (most commonly known as Disney) (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney as a small animation studio, today it is one of the largest Hollywood studios and also owns nine theme parks and several television networks, including ABC.

Disney's corporate headquarters and primary production facilities are located at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. The company is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It had revenues of $31.9 billion in 2005.

Divisions

Disney's main operating units are Walt Disney Studio Entertainment, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Walt Disney Media Networks, and Walt Disney Consumer Products.

Studio Entertainment

Disney Studio Entertainment, also known as the Walt Disney Studios, is possibly the most important function of the company. Headed by chairman Dick Cook, until 1955, the Walt Disney Company's main form of business was motion pictures. Today, the Walt Disney Studios is the collective name of Disney's movie studios, record labels, distribution companies, television studios, animation houses and any other form of optical media.

Parks and Resorts

Under Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, the company also operates through Disney Regional Entertainment the ESPN Zone sports-themed restaurants. The company also owned through Anaheim Sports, Inc. the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey club, which it recently agreed to sell to Broadcom executive Henry Samueli, and owned the Anaheim Angels baseball team, which was later sold to advertising magnate Arturo Moreno. Parks and Resorts also includes the two design studios, Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Creative Entertainment.

Media Networks

Its Media Networks unit is centered around the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network, which it acquired through a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1996.

Disney also owns a group of cable networks including: The Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, the ESPN group, and SOAPnet. Disney also holds substantial interest in Lifetime (50%), A&E (37.5%), and E! (40%).

Through ABC, Disney also owns 10 local television stations, 26 local radio stations, and ESPN Radio, Radio Disney, and the ABC Radio (to be sold with another properties to Citadel Broadcasting, which carries such radio personalities as Sean Hannity and Paul Harvey and distributes news bulletins by ABC News. Buena Vista Television, which also is a part of the Media Networks unit, produces such syndicated television programs as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Ebert & Roeper.

Disney also operates its Hyperion publishing company and Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) through Media Networks. Hyperion has recently published books by comedian-author Steve Martin and bestselling author Mitch Albom. WDIG includes the Go.com web portal, based on the old Infoseek search engine which it purchased in 1998, and leading websites such as Disney.com, ESPN.com, and ABCNews.com.

(Disney Information Courtesy of Wikipedia.)