Disney to Amortize $2.1 Billion in Go.com Costs

Walt Disney Co., the world’s second-largest media company, faces about $2.13 billion in future amortization charges for transactions that created its Go.com Inc. Internet unit.

Disney will record the bulk of the costs in this fiscal year, fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2002, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Disney bought a minority stake in Infoseek Corp. in November 1998, exchanging its holdings in Web site designer Starwave Corp. plus cash. A year later, it bought the rest of Infoseek and combined it with its own online assets to create Go.com. The transactions resulted in an increase in intangible assets that the company is amortizing over periods ranging from two to nine years.

Disney will amortize $682 million in the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, $707 million in fiscal 2001, $658 million in 2002, $92 million in 2003 and $13 million over the remaining amortization period.

Separately, Disney said it will shut down Walt Disney Animation Canada Inc. by spring.

Disney opened studios in Toronto and Vancouver with fanfare in 1996, saying it would produce primarily direct-to-home video programming in connection with Walt Disney Television Animation.

The company has gradually scaled back the operation, which employed 220 people at its peak, since last fall.

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Bloomberg News and Reuters was used in this report.