Why the Disney family are feuding over a US$400 million trust fund
While the company enjoys tremendous success, Walt Disney’s grandchildren, Brad and Michelle, remain embroiled in a multiple-year dispute over their US$400 million trust fund
The Walt Disney Company has come a long way since it was founded by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney nearly a century ago. What began as a cartoon studio is now a media powerhouse, complete with amusement parks and properties.
But for all its success, the family behind “The Happiest Place on Earth” has largely stayed out of the limelight and the business. While it's not known just how much the family is worth, GOBankingRates estimated the company's net worth to be US$130 billion. Roy O.'s grandson, Roy P., previously said the family owns less than 3 per cent of the company, but assuming it is about that amount would put their fortune around US$3.9 billion (not counting any investments in addition to Disney holdings).
From a family trust-fund feud to generous philanthropic endeavours, here's a look at the three generations of the Disney family. (The family didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.)
Disney co-founder Walt Disney wanted to be a cartoonist since high school, taking extracurricular art classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts
He later worked at a film ad company in Missouri, where he learned animation and went on to form his first animation studio, Laugh-O-Grams, according to the Walt Disney website. But a bad business deal led to the downfall of the studio: a small theatrical company called Pictorial Clubs reportedly offered Laugh-O-Gram US$11,000 for six small films, but it only gave Disney a US$100 down payment before Pictoral went bankrupt.
Walt then left for Hollywood. In 1923, he co-founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which became Walt Disney Studio, with his older brother, Roy O. Disney. The two had a close relationship: Walt controlled the creative aspects of the company, while Roy ran the business side.
Five years later, Steamboat Willy was the first media production to debut Mickey Mouse. In 1937, Disney's first feature-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, debuted and became a box office hit, taking the company from being in debt to being worth millions of dollars.
By the late 1950s, Walt had created a family entertainment world complete with movies, television shows and an amusement park
In 1953, Walt self-funded a private company, WED Enterprises – now known as Walt Disney Imagineering – and opened Disneyland two years later. Roughly a decade later, in 1964, Walt and Roy kicked off the development of Walt Disney World in Florida.
