In a blow to collectors and fans of Disney and its characters such as Bambi, Dumbo and Mickey Mouse, The Walt Disney Co. plans to stop issuing paper stock certificates in favor of electronic forms, reports Bloomberg. The company’s paper certificates are decorated with Disney characters, along with a picture of Walt Disney.
Investors will be reissued electronic forms when they transfer shares, Disney said in a regulatory filing. The changes will take place Oct. 16.
Some investors bought the Disney certificates for children as a way to get them interested in investing, and the documents were among the most popular items at GiveAShare.com, a company that sells stock certificates in frames, the story notes.
Other companies long ago switched to electronic forms as a way to save money.
"It’s such a PR tool for them,” said Bob Kerstein, the founder of Scripophily.com, a collector’s site. “Disney was the major holdout. I’m pretty surprised. Everybody’s in cost-cutting mode.”
And how much money will they save a year? $10,000.00, even $100,000.00. The savings will be less than a rounding error in their annual report but the goodwill it gave them is priceless. Too bad the accountants run the company, instead of the marketing people.
Wouldn’t surprise me to see framed certificates for sale in the park gift shop! I can see people laying good money down for “1,000,000 shares of smiles” or some other non-value value! We can’t criticize and second guess losers because they dry up and blow away, so we go after the decisions of winners that keep winning! Go figure-