Left to right: Paul Yanover, senior vice president and general manager, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online – Ken Goldstein, executive vice president and managing director, Disney Online – Larry Shapiro, executive vice president, business development and operations – Steve Wadsworth, president, Walt Disney Internet Group – Mark Handler, executive vice president and managing director, international – Douglas Parrish, senior vice president and chief technology officer – Bernard Gershon, senior vice president and general manager, ABCNEWS.com – Bruce Gordon, senior vice president and chief financial officer.

Disney operates some of the most popular properties on the Internet, which together attract 38 million unique visitors every month. The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) provides strategic leadership, business execution support and a world-class Internet technology platform for these sites, and also directly operates Disney Online worldwide, FamilyFun.com, Movies.com, DisneyAuctions and all of Disney’s expanding wireless Internet businesses.

Fiscal year 2003 marked an important milestone: at a time when most Internet operations are still running fiscal deficits, The Walt Disney Company’s Internet businesses achieved their first full year of profitability. This accomplishment was based on improved operational performance with Disney’s core branded Internet properties as well as the development and growth of new business opportunities.

Disney’s Internet businesses have developed multiple revenue streams: advertising, premium content subscriptions, syndication and e-commerce. In fiscal year 2003, Disney’s Internet businesses were able to offer new advertising inventory and technologies that appealed to large advertisers. Premium subscription and syndicated content revenues greatly expanded as WDIG increased its content offerings and grew its subscriber bases. In e-commerce, the Internet businesses delivered year-over-year revenue growth of more than 30 percent for both DisneyStore.com and Parks and Resorts Online, capitalizing on the growing use of the Internet to purchase products, buy tickets and book vacations. In addition to this strong top-line growth, WDIG’s centralized technology infrastructure continued to drive efficiencies for all of the Internet businesses throughout the company.

New product development, especially for the rapidly expanding broadband and wireless platforms, was a key component of the strong performance of the Internet businesses in 2003.

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