Criticism of The Walt Disney Company Some critics disapprove of the marketing strategy made by Anne Sweeney, the former President of the Disney-ABC Television Group from 2004 to 2014 (1996-2014 as the President of Disney Channel), in which Disney Channel's programming has pulled away from the characters of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, that the company founded itself upon, and now mostly consists of programming geared mainly towards preteens and teenagers.. Longtime fans condemned the company for removing almost all Walt-era and pre-1990s material from the channel in 2002 with the removal of the late-night "Vault Disney" block devoted to this material, which used to
The Walt Disney Company compete with international multimedia conglomerates. Disney lost a $10.4 million lawsuit in September 1997 to Marsu B.V. over Disney's failure to produce as contracted 13 half-hour "Marsupilami" cartoon shows. Instead, Disney felt other internal "hot properties" deserved the company's attention. Disney, which had taken control of the Anaheim Angels in 1996, purchased a majority stake in the team in 1998. That same year, Disney began a move into the internet field with the purchase of Starwave and 43 percent of Infoseek. In 1999, Disney purchased the remaining shares of Infoseek and launched the Go Network portal in January. Disney also