Time Warner looking at Disney??

[frazierle]

I just received my copy of Newsweek and ran accross an article about Richard Parsons (CEO of Time Warner). What really peaked my interest was this paragraph in the article...

"But there's a long-shot scenario in the mix that's more intriguing. Time Warner could put Disney in its sights. "The easy thing would be for Parsons to buy cable," one senior Time Warner executive says. "'Is he going to buy Walt Disney?' is the more interesting question." For years, Disney has been a subpar performer, and has been mentioned often as a potential target for Comcast. Time Warner execs say Parsons would consider making a friendly bid for Disney--but only to rescue it from a hostile-takeover attempt. A Time Warner spokesman says the company is focusing on growing its businesses, not coveting Disney."

This is the link to the whole story: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3706292/

What do you think and could this play into Roy and Stanley's plan? This kind of caught me cold when I read it.

 

[CTXRover]

Yea, I read that too a while ago and had started a thread on it here in the General Discussion of the Walt Disney Company forum.

Thanks though for the article. I know most people don't look at the General Discussion forum :lol:

 

[SIR90210]

No way that would ever happen. The combined debt would crush both companies.

 

[jrriddle]

Oh God No.
Didn't they learn a lesson after the whole AOL fiasco.
Besides Mickey would never be Bugs'...

 

[mkepcotmgmak]

i feel ill. how possible is this?

 

[PhotoDave219]

Originally posted by mkepcotmgmak
i feel ill. how possible is this?

Very Unlikely with Eisner's current fight for survival. No matter how money hungry Eisner is, i dont think the board would let it happen.

That withstanding.... What i have heard, back in May, (From a former VP at CNN) was a possible CNN/ABCNews joint operating agreement. Unlikely but there were preliminary talks happening.

So perhaps Disney would sell ABC off to TimeWarner since its gone from a $1 Billion dollar profit to a 20 mill Loss with Disney owning it. (Source: Last week's Time) I can see that happening but not an all out sell of the company.

 

[JimiThing1]

This all seems highly unlikely now. IMDB.com and other sources are reporting today that Time Warner is actually eyeing once again a merger talk with MGM. They are really more interested in their library of films than anything else. So this Disney talk is all just hearsay really.

 

[frazierle]

The timing of this article I found also to be a bit interesting. With one of the most recognized names on the Disney board, Roy, quitting like he did. Then Stan the following day. Making the statements that were made against Eisner. They are taking advantage of the current boards short sightness. "Time Warner execs say Parsons would consider making a friendly bid for Disney--but only to rescue it from a hostile-takeover attempt." The fact that Comcast is/was interested, Time Warner is considering it, I wonder if this is part of Roy and Stans plan to get back in power. They get one of them to buy Disney then have Roy and Stan sort of run that division.

Where there's smoke there's fire....Or I'm really going out on a limb to find something positive about this.