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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Comcast Makes $66 Billion Bid for Disney

Aired February 11, 2004 - 07:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A big bid in the works for Disney. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." This news crossing just within the past hour.
Good morning to you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.

This is a real bolt from the blue, Bill, really stunning news. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company with 21 million subscribers based out of Philadelphia, is making a proposal to buy the Walt Disney Company, valuing the company at $66 billion.

This apparently is not a friendly proposal right now. The Disney Company has not accepted the deal.

Let me read a letter that the CEO of Comcast has released this morning to Michael Eisner, the CEO of the Disney Company: I'm writing -- "Dear, Michael" -- that would be Michael Eisner. "I'm writing, following our conversation earlier this week, in which I proposed we enter into discussions to merge Disney and Comcast. It is unfortunate you are not willing to do so. Given this, the only way for us to proceed is to make a public proposal directly to you and your board."

That means basically Disney has not agreed to do the deal. The AP is reporting that Michael Eisner is not interested in doing this deal. So, they are taking it directly to shareholders, directly to Wall Street. This is going to turn the media business upside-down.

HEMMER: You think so.

SERWER: It's a huge deal. Absolutely. See, Disney doesn't have any cable distribution. It's been a stand-alone company, unlike Time Warner, our parent company, which has content and cable businesses as well.

Disney has the theme parks, ABC and the movie studio. This would put the largest cable company together with this very powerful content company and create a media colossus.

However, it is not a done deal, and it seems that Disney right now, Michael Eisner, is not accepting the deal. Of course, this has been a very difficult time for Michael Eisner. He's been under fire for performance in that company.

HEMMER: So, a lot of questions here. If Eisner says, OK, we're not going to go forward with this, Comcast continues to pursue, right, quite possibly?

SERWER: Right, right.

HEMMER: And it goes from there.

SERWER: An old-fashioned Wall Street battle, where it will appeal directly to shareholders, sending out proxies and getting the shareholders to vote directly on the deal. This has all kinds of incredible implications, and the story going forward should be fascinating.

HEMMER: Let me ask you another question here. If you were a shareholder, OK, and you want this to go through, why would somebody at Disney want to be a part of Comcast? What does that company offer?

SERWER: Well, that company offers a tremendous platform, as they say in the business, to distribute the content all across the country. And this company, Comcast, has been built from almost absolutely nothing over the past 30 years. They've done a tremendous job of building this into a giant company and adding value to shareholders. The stock has done well over the years. It started in Tupelo, Mississippi, going all the back to the 1970s.

HEMMER: Wow!

SERWER: So, that's what they're going to say that we've built a great company, and by adding Disney we can make it even bigger.

HEMMER: All right, Comcast is based in Philly.

SERWER: That's right.

HEMMER: Big news today.

SERWER: Yes.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





Disney>


Aired February 11, 2004 - 07:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A big bid in the works for Disney. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." This news crossing just within the past hour.
Good morning to you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.

This is a real bolt from the blue, Bill, really stunning news. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company with 21 million subscribers based out of Philadelphia, is making a proposal to buy the Walt Disney Company, valuing the company at $66 billion.

This apparently is not a friendly proposal right now. The Disney Company has not accepted the deal.

Let me read a letter that the CEO of Comcast has released this morning to Michael Eisner, the CEO of the Disney Company: I'm writing -- "Dear, Michael" -- that would be Michael Eisner. "I'm writing, following our conversation earlier this week, in which I proposed we enter into discussions to merge Disney and Comcast. It is unfortunate you are not willing to do so. Given this, the only way for us to proceed is to make a public proposal directly to you and your board."

That means basically Disney has not agreed to do the deal. The AP is reporting that Michael Eisner is not interested in doing this deal. So, they are taking it directly to shareholders, directly to Wall Street. This is going to turn the media business upside-down.

HEMMER: You think so.

SERWER: It's a huge deal. Absolutely. See, Disney doesn't have any cable distribution. It's been a stand-alone company, unlike Time Warner, our parent company, which has content and cable businesses as well.

Disney has the theme parks, ABC and the movie studio. This would put the largest cable company together with this very powerful content company and create a media colossus.

However, it is not a done deal, and it seems that Disney right now, Michael Eisner, is not accepting the deal. Of course, this has been a very difficult time for Michael Eisner. He's been under fire for performance in that company.

HEMMER: So, a lot of questions here. If Eisner says, OK, we're not going to go forward with this, Comcast continues to pursue, right, quite possibly?

SERWER: Right, right.

HEMMER: And it goes from there.

SERWER: An old-fashioned Wall Street battle, where it will appeal directly to shareholders, sending out proxies and getting the shareholders to vote directly on the deal. This has all kinds of incredible implications, and the story going forward should be fascinating.

HEMMER: Let me ask you another question here. If you were a shareholder, OK, and you want this to go through, why would somebody at Disney want to be a part of Comcast? What does that company offer?

SERWER: Well, that company offers a tremendous platform, as they say in the business, to distribute the content all across the country. And this company, Comcast, has been built from almost absolutely nothing over the past 30 years. They've done a tremendous job of building this into a giant company and adding value to shareholders. The stock has done well over the years. It started in Tupelo, Mississippi, going all the back to the 1970s.

HEMMER: Wow!

SERWER: So, that's what they're going to say that we've built a great company, and by adding Disney we can make it even bigger.

HEMMER: All right, Comcast is based in Philly.

SERWER: That's right.

HEMMER: Big news today.

SERWER: Yes.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





Disney>