Wall Street expert predicts Apple acquisition of ESPN

Wall Street expert and Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives is confident Apple can acquire ESPN from Walt Disney at a potential price of $50 billion.

So far, Apple is a year into a 10-year, $2.5 billion streaming deal with Major League Soccer. Lionel Messi certainly helped over the last couple of months in Miami.

Apple is noteworthy in the college sports space due to the Pac-12 offering to get its new media deal in the streaming world, but conference essentially fell apart amid realignment.

But maybe an Apple acquisition of ESPN could drastically change things for sports in general, not just college athletics.

“Apple and ESPN are the perfect fit,” Ives told CNBC, via Front Office Sports. “Cupertino is looking to go after live sports content as the golden goose. I believe it’s a matter of when — not if — ESPN and Apple get together.”

This is what Apple would get the rights to in an acquisition of ESPN: the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, PGA Tour, tennis Grand Slams, Formula 1, and college football’s Big 12 and SEC Conferences — plus ESPN’s first two Super Bowls after the 2026 and 2030 seasons.

Yeah, that might be worth $50 billion to the tech giant.

“With a market capitalization of $2.7 trillion, Apple could make ESPN the favorite for every sports property that comes up for bid, including the NBA and the College Football Playoff,” FOS’ Michael McCarthy wrote.

ESPN is Disney’s cash cow, as described by McCarthy. So other than $50 billion, what’s to gain from selling it to Apple?

“Then there’s ESPN’s long-running role as Disney’s cash cow: Over the decades, Disney chief executive officer Bob Iger has used the billions generated by ESPN affiliates and advertising fees to finance his acquisitions of Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm,” McCarthy wrote. “… Even with ESPN’s economic model under pressure from cord-cutting, it’s uncertain whether Iger would want to turn off that revenue spigot. Since ESPN will air its Super Bowls and the NBA Finals on ABC, its sister broadcast network would likely have to be included in a deal.”

From the college perspective, particularly in the Pac-12, Apple and ESPN has some irony to it.

The lack of a TV deal, or at least one that schools were happy with, played a big role in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah choosing to leave the league this summer.

According to John Canzano, ESPN offered a TV rights deal of $30 million per school last fall, which is a better offer than what Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff brought to the table from Apple this summer. However, Canzano reported that Pac-12 presidents and chancellors wanted more from ESPN, asking for $50 million per school.

ESPN declined, no deal was made and now the Pac-12 as we know it is no more.

Now, what if Apple ends up purchasing ESPN? We’re not saying it’ll resurrect the Pac-12, but Apple will be the game changer in sports no one saw coming.