Needham & Company analysts once again pitched the idea of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) taking over Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS).
Yesterday, Apple unveiled its much anticipated mixed reality (MR) headset “Vision Pro.” At one point during the presentation, Disney CEO Bob Iger appeared on stage to announce a partnership with Apple. Disney+ content will be available on Vision Pro.
“We’re constantly in search of new ways to entertain, inform, and inspire our fans by combining extraordinary creativity with groundbreaking technology to create truly remarkable experiences,” Iger said at Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
“We believe Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary platform that can make our vision a reality.”
Needham analysts argue that the Vision Pro partnership “demonstrates the compelling strategic fit between DIS’s content and AAPL’s wearable technology.”
“At $3,500, we expect adoption to be slow. However, if AAPL buys DIS, its storytellers could create unique content to drive consumer adoption of AAPL’s Vision Pro goggles, we believe,” they said in a client note.
Disney shares trade “just” 4.5% higher year-to-date. The stock closed at $90.77 on Monday, valuing the entertainment business at $165.86 billion.
The analysts also believe that Apple will win its MR battle with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META).
“META has been trying to create the next computing platform since it bought Oculus in 2014. Since nearly all of META’s revs comes from mobile devices, it wants to create the next underlying platform, rather than being a victim of Android and iOS policy shifts. We believe AAPL’s new AR-based Vision Pro headsets beats META’s VR-based headset execution.”
