The Gay Financial Network recently listed the ten "most powerful and gay friendly public companies in corporate America." They are American Express Co.; Walt Disney Co.; Microsoft Co.; Lucent Technologies Inc.; Xerox; International Business Machines; Hewlett-Packard Co.; Apple Computer Inc.; AMR Corp. and Citigroup Inc.
Lackluster theme park attendance and a poor showing at the summer box office and at the ABC network continued to thwart earnings growth at the Walt Disney Company, which said today that its fiscal third-quarter operating income dropped 26 percent.
The continued drop in theme park business was a surprise to analysts. Many thought attendance was on the upswing, in part because of the prospects of a brighter economy. Operating income at the parks dropped 17 percent, to $467 million. More important, Tom Staggs, Disney's chief financial officer, said that current bookings for the fourth quarter were down 10 percent. "We wanted to give advance warning of a thing like that," Mr. Staggs said in an interview.
Looks like scheduling countless "Gay Days" at Disneyland was a real good idea.