he Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American
multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt
Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by
brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it
also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney
Productions before changing it to its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney
established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat
Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound
cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse,[4] who became Disney's mascot and corporate
icon.[not verified in body]
After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action
films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death
in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. In
1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the
company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the
highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation in the 1990s. In 2005, under
new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment
conglomerate with the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and 21st
Century Fox. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement.
However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.[
