When Universal-backed Charles Mintz secretly poached nearly all of Disney's animators while Universal retained the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney was left with nothing — a formative trauma that later drove Disney's obsession with owning its own IP outright. ✦ AI generated
David Rosenthal · Acquired · 2026-06-23 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 38:14
He doesn't have employment contracts with them. And he also doesn't have any control or rights to the actual Oswald IP. So, he has no leverage. He's got nothing. He's got no customer contract. He's got no employees. He's got no intellectual properties. Suddenly, the enterprise value, so that the entire value of Walt Disney Studios is effectively zero.
verbatim transcript · starts at 38:14
38:14has no leverage. He's got nothing. He's got no customer contract. He's got no employees. He's got no intellectual properties. Suddenly, the enterprise value, so that the the entire value of Walt Disney Studios is effectively zero. Yep. It is a extremely bitter lesson for Walt and for Roy. And it is one that you can bet they never forget for the rest of their lives. And really like everything in Disney's history and all
38:42of the enterprise value that Disney has built that we will see all across the rest of this episode traces back to this moment. >> It's a hard reaction to this lesson. >> Totally. I have a fun bit of trivia for you, Ben. >> Oo. >> So, as I think you know, Disney eventually does get the rights to Oswald back. >> This is gonna be my trivia for you,
39:04[laughter] >> right? Actually, ask your question. We might have different takes on it. Disney eventually does get the rights to Oswald back in 2006. >> Bob Iger, one of his first acts as CEO, did the deal. >> Yes. Do you know how Bob got Oswald back for Disney? >> So, let's see. By this point, Disney had acquired ABC. >> Yep. >> And had acquired ESPN. >> And who owned Oswald at this point? It
39:32was Universal, which was owned by NBC, which is now owned by Comcast. >> Correct. So, there's a ABC asset that Bob effectively trades in exchange for Oswald. And I think that ABC ESPN Monday Night Football asset is Al Michaels. >> Al Michaels, the Monday Night Football commentator, [laughter] like a sports team trade to NBC in exchange for the IP rights to Oswald the Rabbit. >> And Oswald is repatriated and NBC gets
40:04Al Michaels and all is right in the world. Amazing. So, back to 1928. Walt and Roy are basically back at square one here. They have not really just nothing. They actually have less than nothing because Mintz ever the uh well really just kind of weasel is the right word. >> Yeah. He makes Walt and Walt Disney Studios finish out the current Oswald contract, which still had a few cartoons left to