Shares of Disney are down almost 4% on Thursday after CEO Bob Iger gave a disappointing earnings forecast at a conference in New York. Iger also said that Marvel and Star Wars were coming exclusively to Disney's recently announced streaming service.
Speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Communications Conference in New York, Iger said that the recent merger and acquisition activity is likely to continue, and that this year’s earnings per share will be roughly in-line with 2016, Bloomberg reported.
For the 2016 fiscal year, Disney reported earnings of $5.72 a share. FactSet currently estimates 2017 EPS to be $5.89.
Any balance sheet padding from the streaming service won’t come for a while; the service is set to launch in late 2019, with specifics on pricing to come in 2018, Iger said. He also noted that an ESPN app will be separate from other Disney streaming services, and that customers will be able to purchase viewing rights for individual ESPN events.
“I have described a very rich, treasure trove of content for this app,” he said, according to CNBC. ”We're going to launch big, and we're going to launch hot."
Shares of Disney were trading down about 3.4% following the news.
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