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American Morning
'Minding Your Business'
Aired February 18, 2004 - 07:26 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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Comcast saying it does not plan to sweeten the offer for Disney, but Disney, nevertheless, has gone out and made a deal on its own.
Andy Serwer is minding your business.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Jack.
A swirl of news surrounding the Walt Disney Company over the past 24 hours. Let's start with the fun stuff. Disney buying the Muppets. That's right, the Henson Company, Miss. Piggy and Kermit the Frog. Reports saying about $50 million. This company founded, of course, by Jim Henson years and years ago. He passed away in 1990. Disney wanted to buy the company then. His heirs sold it to a German company. They bought it back. And now, finally, it is part of the Disney family. Not the Sesame Street characters, though, Jack. That belongs to a company here in New York.
CAFFERTY: All right, let's go back to the Comcast thing for a minute.
SERWER: Yes?
CAFFERTY: Why are they not willing to put a little more money on the table, do you suppose?
SERWER: Well, you know, there's two schools of thought here. One is they don't want to do it and they're going to walk away. The other is it's just a negotiating tactic, a ploy. They always say this. We're not going to pony up any more money. Then they come back a couple weeks later and, in fact, do pony up some more money.
This, of course, is Comcast responding to Disney's suggestion that maybe sweetening the pot would help the deal get done.
Another thing going on, of course, and this is a three ring circus here with this company, isn't it?
CAFFERTY: Sure.
SERWER: Is Roy Disney, who is the nephew of the company founder, Walt Disney, has a proxy battle going on, trying to oust Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner. The annual meeting is March 3rd. Where? In Philadelphia, the home of Comcast. You got that?
CAFFERTY: All right.
SERWER: It's really pretty amazing and obviously Michael Eisner -- and we've said this before -- but he is in the hot seat, no question about that.
CAFFERTY: Indeed he is.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 18, 2004 - 07:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Comcast saying it does not plan to sweeten the offer for Disney, but Disney, nevertheless, has gone out and made a deal on its own.
Andy Serwer is minding your business.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Jack.
A swirl of news surrounding the Walt Disney Company over the past 24 hours. Let's start with the fun stuff. Disney buying the Muppets. That's right, the Henson Company, Miss. Piggy and Kermit the Frog. Reports saying about $50 million. This company founded, of course, by Jim Henson years and years ago. He passed away in 1990. Disney wanted to buy the company then. His heirs sold it to a German company. They bought it back. And now, finally, it is part of the Disney family. Not the Sesame Street characters, though, Jack. That belongs to a company here in New York.
CAFFERTY: All right, let's go back to the Comcast thing for a minute.
SERWER: Yes?
CAFFERTY: Why are they not willing to put a little more money on the table, do you suppose?
SERWER: Well, you know, there's two schools of thought here. One is they don't want to do it and they're going to walk away. The other is it's just a negotiating tactic, a ploy. They always say this. We're not going to pony up any more money. Then they come back a couple weeks later and, in fact, do pony up some more money.
This, of course, is Comcast responding to Disney's suggestion that maybe sweetening the pot would help the deal get done.
Another thing going on, of course, and this is a three ring circus here with this company, isn't it?
CAFFERTY: Sure.
SERWER: Is Roy Disney, who is the nephew of the company founder, Walt Disney, has a proxy battle going on, trying to oust Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner. The annual meeting is March 3rd. Where? In Philadelphia, the home of Comcast. You got that?
CAFFERTY: All right.
SERWER: It's really pretty amazing and obviously Michael Eisner -- and we've said this before -- but he is in the hot seat, no question about that.
CAFFERTY: Indeed he is.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
