Chomsky and Herman explain the systematic biases of the North American media as a consequence of the pressure to create a stable and profitable business (2002), illustrated in the study of Walt Disney. Business. The Walt Disney Company's importance and influence on consumer culture has sparked widespread critical debate on the topic of media convergence. Disney has always been a profit-driven company, originally operating as a small independent production company in the 1930s and 1940s, but in the 1950s it shifted its focus to theme parks and television, before expanding further to goods in the 1980s (Wasko, 2001 pp. 237-257). The Walt Disney Company has since grown into a transnational media and entertainment conglomerate, with revenues of over $25.4 billion in 2000. The Disney Company includes a wide range of entertainment labels, including films under the label Walt Disney, as well as Touchstone, Hollywood, Miramax. and ivory merchant. In 1998, Disney held nearly 22% market share in the North American market (Wasko, 2001, pp. 237--257). It is clear that Disney Corporation is a dominant player in the entertainment and media sector, an increasingly corporatized and centralized industry with a growing focus on children, and that it is dominated by other transnational media conglomerates such as Viacom, Fox and Time Warner. These companies not only have enormous economic power, but they also wield great political influence. They have paid extraordinary amounts of money to political parties and officials, spending more than $3,570,000 on lobbying in 2010. This political influence is not superfluous: it allows the company to influence political changes for prevent the dissolution and degradation of their media.