Disney Shutters ESPN Mobile

NEW YORK, September 28: According to wire reports, The Walt
Disney Company is closing down its ESPN Mobile business, a mobile virtual
network operator, at the end of this year.

ESPN Mobile will continue to offer its wireless service to
subscribers until the end of this year. It will then help its customers
transfer to other providers. The move comes less than a year since the business
launched. ESPN is now moving to a model whereby it works to provide content to
other mobile operators. The shuttering of ESPN Mobile is expected to see about
60 jobs eliminated.

"There's certainly some disappointment," Salil
Mehta, the EVP for ESPN Enterprises, told the AP. "I think the focus of
the ESPN organization is that we took a risk, but in doing so we have the
benefit of having created the industry's leading wireless application, and
we're going to figure out a way to bring that to fans and make the most amount
of money."