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Disney Wants To Get Back Stores It Sold

Walt Disney is talking to Children's Place Retail Stores about reacquiring about two-thirds of the troubled 335 Disney stores it sold to them in 2004. The company says the retail operations would play an important role in extending the Disney brand and would serve as a launching pad for the company's growing number of creative franchises.

Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting and investing banking firm, says Disney's decision to take over its namesake stores would prove a liability. But Martin Brochstein, executive editor of the Licensing Letter, says the stores have value for Disney as a promotional platform.

"When you're in control of franchises and a retail outlet like the Disney stores...we can take bets early on "Disney Fairies" or "High School Musical." We can launch a line of merchandise and let it take off from there," a spokesman for Disney Consumer Products says.

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