Disney executives are known for spotting emerging trends, and now they have a better view.

The company's planned acquisition of Maker Studios provides the media heavyweight with the expertise and data to make strides in digital, short-form video — an area that has grown rapidly with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets but has largely left the magic kingdom behind.

"Maker is a crystal ball that Disney is buying," said James McQuivey, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. "Getting into Maker gives them years of data that they can look back at and say 'What does this mean for the future of video consumption, and what does this mean for the future of video production?'"

Right now, Disney is among the fairest of them all, with a stock price near an all-time high, a recent mega hit in Frozen, record attendance at its theme parks and growing profits.

But present success does not guarantee future prosperity. Young adults and children have rapidly taken to alternate means to consume content. Consider: In a recent survey, 72% of 8 year olds used a mobile device to access media. Many young adults now watch more video online than on television.

While mobile has become a go-to place for youthful media consumption, Disney has lagged behind. Its interactive business is the worst-performing division of the company, as Variety's Marc Graser recently noted.

Short-form online video revenue does not rival its movie or television businesses, but rapid growth combined with Disney's struggles made for an area that demanded action.

“Short-form online video is growing at an astonishing pace and with Maker Studios, Disney will now be at the center of this dynamic industry with an unmatched combination of advanced technology and programming expertise and capabilities,” Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger said in a press release announcing the acquisition.

March of the Penguin club

Maker is far from Disney's first foray into digital acquisitions. In 2007, it bought Club Penguin, a virtual world in which youngsters could play games and interact.

The deal had a similar structure to Maker's — $350 million upfront with another $350 million in performance targets. Disney bought Maker for $500 million and is offering another $450 million in performance incentives.

Tuna Amobi, an analyst for financial services firm S&P Capital IQ, said Maker represents an even more aggressive play than the Club Penguin acquisition, putting Disney squarely in uncharted territory — YouTube.

"I would argue this is even more compelling. In the past few years I think YouTube has really emerged as a major aggregator of content," he said. "Initially it was user-generated content, but I think they have really made that transition to host a whole lot of channels."

Club Penguin was for the kids, but Maker is for the young adults, a demographic that has been tough for Disney to attract.

Maker bills itself as "the most authentic, effective way to reach Millennials."

"I think for Disney it fits nicely into what they accomplish which is to have everything for the entire family," Amobi said. "Arguably the weakest link for them in that has been the young adults."

Lisa Donovan, who cofounded Maker, launched her LisaNova channel on YouTube and later worked with other content creators to form the company in 2009.

The company curated talent and built a series of YouTube channels with a subscriber base in the "millions," according to Maker.

Disney's acquisition provides years of expertise as well as a user base that would have been otherwise difficult to attain, said Larry Chu, a partner at Goodwin Procter, which advised investors in Maker on the deal.

"It's really hard to start something like this," Chu said. "It's almost like why  Facebook is buying WhatsApp. You have a viewer base that is very difficult to replicate from the ground up. "Being able to step into that is quite valuable."

To infinity and beyond

The deal is not without a healthy amount of risk. While confidence in YouTube as a platform for original content has grown, there are plenty of critics of the site's ad revenue split.

And there is no promise that Maker and other short-form video producers can find success, both in viewers and revenue, on other sites. The company is reported to be planning to launch its own video site and bought videocaster blip.tv in August in an effort to diversify away from YouTube.

Maker is not known to be making a profit, which has raised eyebrows when considering the price Disney paid.

"There's obviously some downside risk factors as you think about the valuation and the fact that when it's still all said and done a relatively unproven business model," Amobi said.

Integration between Disney and Maker will be an important question, McQuivey said. Disney will need to figure out how to tap Maker's talent and ability to garner views while leveraging its marketing and production assets to help create quality content.

"If they don't ask it the right questions," he said, "years will go buy and they'll realize they just bought a collection of YouTube channels, not a unique asset."

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