American Express vs Disney: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: American Express and Disney side by side

1. 1850American Express

   American Express founded in Buffalo, New York

   Henry Wells, William Fargo and John Butterfield merged three competing express businesses on March 18, 1850 to form the American Express Company, an unincorporated joint-stock association capitalized at 150,000 dollars.

2. 1882American Express

   Money order launched

   American Express introduced its own money order, competing directly with the postal money order the United States Post Office had offered since 1864.

3. 1891American Express

   Traveler's cheque invented

   Marcellus Berry created the American Express Traveler's Cheque after president J.C. Fargo struggled to cash letters of credit on a European trip in 1890.

4. 1917American Express

   Federal control of the express industry

   Federal control of the railroads began in December 1917, and in 1918 the domestic express operations of American Express and its rivals were consolidated into the American Railway Express Company.

5. 1923Disney

   Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio is founded

   Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney formed the studio after Walt arrived in California with the Alice Comedies.

6. 1928Disney

   Mickey Mouse debuts in Steamboat Willie

   Steamboat Willie introduced Mickey Mouse to a broad audience with synchronized sound. The short helped Disney turn a technical change in cinema into a character asset that could be repeated, licensed, and expanded.

7. 1937Disney

   Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is released

   Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs proved that feature-length animation could work as a premium theatrical event. Its success gave the studio credibility and capital for more ambitious animated films.

8. 1955Disney

   Disneyland opens in Anaheim

   Disneyland moved the company beyond screens and into physical entertainment. The park created a second economic model built on admission, food, merchandise, hospitality, and repeat family visits.

9. 1958American Express

   First American Express charge card

   American Express issued its first charge card on October 1, 1958, printed on paper with a 6 dollar annual fee, after signing up more than 250,000 card members before launch.

10. 1966American Express

    Gold Card introduced

    American Express launched the Gold Card in 1966 for higher-spending executives and frequent travelers, the first tier above the standard card and the start of the graded premium lineup that later added the Platinum Card and the Centurion Card.

11. 1984American Express

    Platinum Card launched during the financial supermarket build-out

    American Express introduced The Platinum Card by invitation in 1984 with a 250 dollar annual fee, creating the ultra-premium card category.

12. 1993American Express

    Harvey Golub refocuses the company

    Harvey Golub became chief executive in 1993 and unwound the conglomerate: the Shearson brokerage went to Primerica's Smith Barney and The Boston Company to Mellon Bank in 1993, and Lehman Brothers was spun off in 1994.

13. 1996Disney

    Capital Cities/ABC brings ESPN to Disney

    Disney stockholders approved the Capital Cities/ABC merger in 1996, bringing ABC and ESPN into the company. ESPN later became central to Disney's television economics and is now central to its cord-cutting risk.

14. 1999American Express

    Centurion Card launched

    American Express created the Centurion Card in 1999, an invitation-only metal card that became the top tier of its lineup. The company has never published its fee schedule, and the product functions mainly as a positioning device for the cards below it.

15. 2001American Express

    Kenneth Chenault becomes chief executive

    Kenneth Chenault became chief executive in January 2001, weeks before the September 11 attacks damaged the company's lower Manhattan operations and cut travel spending sharply.

16. 2005Disney

    Robert A. Iger becomes CEO

    Iger became CEO in 2005 after serving as Disney president and chief operating officer. His tenure reshaped the company through Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 21st Century Fox assets, international expansion, and direct-to-consumer streaming.

17. 2006Disney

    Pixar Animation Studios is acquired

    The $7.4B Pixar deal ended a strained distribution relationship and brought creative leadership, computer-animation expertise, and a strong story process into Disney. It helped restore animation momentum and set the template for later franchise acquisitions.

18. 2008American Express

    Conversion to a bank holding company

    On November 10, 2008 the Federal Reserve Board approved applications by American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services to become bank holding companies, on conversion of American Express Centurion Bank from an industrial loan company int…

19. 2009Disney

    Marvel Entertainment is acquired

    Disney agreed to acquire Marvel in a transaction valued at about $4B. The deal added more than 5,000 characters and expanded the company's reach in theatrical films, consumer products, streaming, and parks.

20. 2012Disney

    Lucasfilm joins Disney

    The Lucasfilm acquisition was valued at $4.05B and brought Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Industrial Light & Magic, and related production assets. It gave Disney a global franchise with theatrical, streaming, merchandise, games, and parks potential.

21. 2016American Express

    Costco co-brand ends

    Costco moved its United States co-branded card to Citigroup and Visa on June 20, 2016, ending a 16-year exclusive relationship after the two sides failed to agree terms, and stopped accepting American Express cards in its warehouses.

22. 2018American Express

    Stephen Squeri becomes chairman and chief executive

    Stephen Squeri succeeded Kenneth Chenault in February 2018 after more than three decades inside the company, including spells as chief information officer and group president of Global Corporate Services.

23. 2019Disney

    Disney signs amended 21st Century Fox acquisition agreement

    The amended Fox agreement valued the equity consideration at about $71.3B and expanded Disney's content library, international assets, and Hulu position. It was a scale move made as Disney prepared for a streaming-centered media market.

24. 2019Disney

    Disney+ launches

    Disney+ launched in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands with nearly 500 films and 7,500 television episodes. The service moved Disney closer to consumers and made streaming economics a core investor question.

25. 2020American Express

    Pandemic hits travel and entertainment spending

    COVID-19 restrictions cut the travel and entertainment spending American Express depends on, and total revenues net of interest expense fell from 43.6 billion dollars in 2019 to 36.1 billion dollars in 2020, with net income down to 3.1 billion dollars.

26. 2020Disney

    Bob Chapek leads through pandemic disruption

    Chapek became CEO shortly before COVID-19 disrupted parks, cruises, theaters, and production. The period exposed Disney's dependence on physical attendance while accelerating demand for direct-to-consumer streaming.

27. 2024American Express

    Tock acquisition widens the dining platform

    American Express agreed in June 2024 to buy Tock, a reservation, table and event management platform, from Squarespace for 400 million dollars in cash, pairing it with Resy, which it had bought in 2019.

28. 2025American Express

    Platinum refresh and record FY2025 results

    American Express unveiled refreshed United States Consumer and Business Platinum Cards on September 18, 2025, raising the annual fee from 695 dollars to 895 dollars and adding statement credits it values at over 3,500 dollars a year.

29. 2025Disney

    $94.425B revenue and $12.404B net income

    FY2025 results showed the scale of Disney's current base across Entertainment, ESPN, and Experiences. The figures shift the analysis from simple revenue recovery to the quality of earnings, streaming profit, and park capital returns.

30. 2026Disney

    Josh D'Amaro becomes CEO

    Disney's board unanimously elected Josh D'Amaro CEO effective March 18, 2026, with Robert A. Iger moving to senior advisor and Dana Walden becoming President and Chief Creative Officer.

Acquisitions

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