No, Disney did not buy the Anaheim Ducks; rather, Disney was the original creator and founder of the franchise, establishing the team from scratch in the early 1990s before eventually selling it to new owners. Following the massive box-office success of their 1992 hit live-action movie The Mighty Ducks, starring Emilio Estevez, The Walt Disney Company, led by CEO Michael Eisner, paid the NHL a staggering expansion fee of 50 million dollars to secure a brand-new hockey franchise for the Anaheim market starting with the 1993-1994 season. Disney operated the team as part of its expansive entertainment empire, leveraging the movie's branding, merchandise, and colorful aesthetic to draw massive crowds to the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. However, running a professional sports franchise eventually became less aligned with Disney's core entertainment strategy, leading the corporation to put the team up for sale. In 2005, multi-billionaire tech entrepreneurs Henry and Susan Samueli purchased the franchise from Disney, officially bringing an end to the corporate studio era of ownership. The new owners immediately set about modernizing the team's identity, dropping "The Mighty" from the name ahead of the 2006-2007 season and introducing a new logo and color scheme, though Disney's foundational role in bringing professional ice hockey to Orange County remains a legendary and unique chapter in sports business history.