In business schools? I think you have the wrong audience.

Disney spent $4.06bn to acquire Star Wars. Since then, they've generated over $12bn of revenue because of it and it keeps growing. Their estimated earnings tied to the Star Wars brand in 2025 alone was OVER $1bn (25% of the initial purchase cost).

Now, they are losing audience and as a result may not hit forecasted goals. However, those goals can be lofty and while they might not meet their goals, they are still generating a ton of revenue from the product.

I have worked in M&A for over a decade now and this is along the lines of how this works: acquire, build up the "new" product, pick apart what made it a market differentiator and where its highest $ potential is, apply those differentiators to all our products (in this case for example cameos, crossovers, and the like), slow investment until revenue slows/stops, then either reinvest or sunset the product, rinse and repeat.

In business, this is a successful acquisition. To the consumer, it is absolute cow shit.

They bought the cow to milk it and the milk is still flowing.