On August 9 , 2002 , Disney said it was expressing great interest in buying Universal Studios whose parent company Vivendi started a bidding war after inheriting $ 17.9 billion in debt by its purchase of the famed major film studio from Seagram for $ 34 billion . In addition , Universal Orlando 's Islands of Adventure was struggling to deal with catastrophically low attendance since the park 's opening in 1999 , and the September 11 attacks in 2001 caused a dip of Universal Parks and Resorts ' tourism attendance worldwide . As a result , Vivendi lacked the interest in investing in the Universal parks more meaningfully and may have been one of the reasons for selling off Universal . Analysts speculated that Universal would have to be available at a bargain price to justify such a deal . " Owning more theme parks could make Disney even more cyclical because that 's a cyclical business , " said Katherine Styponias of Prudential Securities . Despite this , Disney did n't succeed in pursuing a takeover for various reasons , owing to its stock price at a 52-week-low , the hostility from Vivendi shareholders , and the likelihood of the Disney/Universal deal being blocked on anti-trust grounds ( e.g. less innovation in theme parks , higher prices for hotel rooms , growing power of box office market share , etc . )
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
The Walt Disney Company