Disney Reportedly in Talks To Sell Out to Company Under Child Abuse Allegations

The Walt Disney Company is reportedly in talks to sell out to a trillion-dollar corporation that has been accused of destroying the Amazonian rainforest, devastating the global housing market, and using child labor in dangerous slaughterhouses.

That is not a very good look for a company that has prided itself on its family-friendly image, but it seems that desperate economic times can cause strange bedfellows.

In the last year, it has been estimated that the Walt Disney Company may have lost nearly a billion dollars at the box office after a streak of disasters like the Toy Story spinoff Lightyear (2022) and the little-seen Strange World (2022). Combine that with Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm both drastically underperforming with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and things are not looking good for Disney executives.

Related: Disney CEO Bob Iger Comments on Potential Sale to Apple

However, box office grosses are not the only problem. Disney is facing dwindling attendance at once-booming theme parks like Disneyland and Walt Disney World and has found itself the center of a political firestorm in its lawsuits with anti-“woke” crusader and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Then there is the recently concluded Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike that ground Hollywood to a standstill and the still-ongoing Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike that threatens to do the same.

Of course, Disney CEO Bob Iger’s public comments about employees being “unrealistic” for asking to be fairly compensated didn’t help, especially when his own massive salary and spending habits were made public.

It seems like it should be surprising, then, that Reuters reports that Disney is in talks to become a joint venture partner with Blackstone Inc, the world’s largest alternative investment company.

Specifically, Disney is in preliminary discussions to partner with Blackstone to acquire a greater share of the hyper-competitive entertainment market of India, where the House of Mouse has been floundering against the likes of Google, Netflix, and Apple.

We previously reported that Disney has been looking to cut and run from India, where it has been hemorrhaging Disney+ Hotstar subscribers since losing streaming rights to the massively popular Indian Premier League. Right now, it is on the verge of ceding streaming dominance in the world’s largest market to Netflix, but a huge cash infusion from Blackstone could go a long way to getting an upper hand.

Related: Bob Iger Sends Cold Mass E-Mail Regarding Disney Layoffs

It is unclear whether Blackstone is primarily interested as a stake or if it is in talks to purchase streaming and other entertainment assets in India outright.

But it is certain that Blackstone is a highly controversial company that made headlines earlier this year when it was discovered that it, via its subsidiary Packers Sanitation Services Inc (PSSI), was using child labor to clean extraordinarily dangerous slaughterhouses across the United States. PSSI has paid approximately $1.5 million in civil damages for using child labor, which is less than a drop in the bucket of Blackstone’s assets.

While nothing has been confirmed as of yet, if Disney were to partner with a company such as Blackstone, it would imply a pretty dire situation for the entertainment company.

Is it ethical for Disney to partner or sell to a company like Blackstone? Give us your opinion in the comments below.