Hell yes... Comcast Drops Disney Offer

[Son of the Morning]

Now I'm happy.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/28/news/fo ... tm?cnn=yes

Comcast drops Disney offer

No. 1 cable operator withdraws $48 billion merger offer with media conglomerate; reports a profit.
April 28, 2004: 7:39 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comcast Corp. said Wednesday it withdrew its $48 billion offer to acquire the Walt Disney Co. as the No. 1 U.S. cable company reported a first-quarter profit after a year earlier loss.

"We have always been disciplined in our approach to acquisitions," said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts in a statement. "Being disciplined means knowing when it is time to walk away. That time is now."

Shares of Comcast (CMCSK: Research, Estimates) jumped $1.78, or 6 percent, to $31.75 in before-hours trading Wednesday.

Roberts put the cause for dropped offer at the feet of Disney's management, which received the backing of its board on Monday.

"It has become clear that there is no interest on the part of Disney's management and Board in putting Comcast and Disney together," he added.

Comcast also said it will move forward with a previously announced $1 billion stock buyback program now that it has dropped the Disney (DIS: Research, Estimates) bid.

Separately, Comcast reported a net profit of $65 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a loss of $297 million, or 13 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

Analysts, on average, has forecast a profit of 7 cents a share, within a range from a loss of a penny a share to a profit of 17 cents, according to Reuters Research.

Profit at the Philadelphia-based cable operator were driven by adding lucrative high-speed Internet customers. It added 394,000 Internet subscribers in the first quarter, and 192,000 digital video customers.

Revenue rose 9.8 percent to $4.91 billion from $4.47 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue from the 2003 quarter excludes contributions from shopping channel QVC, which Comcast sold to Liberty Media in September 2003.

"We continue to make each of our services even more compelling by adding more features and applications that provide more value to our customers," Roberts said in a separate statement.

Comcast doubled its download speeds in the fourth quarter last year, partially in response to competitive pricing pressures from telephone providers.

[AwallaceUNC]

WOOOOHOOOOOOOO. I thought it would happen, but it's comforting to know it finally has. I'm interested in seeing how this might effect both the Eisner deliberations and successor plans, as well as the Save Disney campaign.

-Aaron

[Joshua Clinard]

Actually, I wish they would have rasied the offer by a couple of billion, say to 65 billion or so. The Disney Board surely would have accepted it, and then Eisner would have been outta there!

[Jens]

Yeah but think about all the changes that would be made, even if Eisner was gone. I don't think Comcast thinks any different than Eisner you know, it's a tough world out there if you want to stay the market leader, and Eisner knows how to do it (only HOW is another thing).

[poco]

Although I am a laid-back pretty moderate and open minister, I would rather not see post topic headings that start out with "Hell yes" on a Disney forum. It just doesn't fit the image of what we are talking about.

[Invader ZIM]

More Disney news:

Following a two-day retreat at company headquarters in Burbank, the Walt Disney Company's board of directors reiterated their support of CEO Michael Eisner Tuesday. "The board continues to have complete confidence in Michael Eisner, [COO] Bob Iger and the senior management team and in their strategic growth plan to continue to strengthen the company's position as the global leader in quality family entertainment," the board said in a statement. The board also indicated that it had discussed succession issues regarding Eisner but gave no details. A source told the Los Angeles Times that the board is in the process of evaluating possible internal candidates for the job and has no plans to go outside the company.~ imdb.com


oops didn't notice thread in off-topic oh well it pertains to Disney

[Son of the Morning]

Although I am a laid-back pretty moderate and open minister, I would rather not see post topic headings that start out with "Hell yes" on a Disney forum. It just doesn't fit the image of what we are talking about.

If I did that (^^^) any more vigorously, I believe my eyes would shoot through the crown of my head.

[matthewgb]

Although I am a laid-back pretty moderate and open minister, I would rather not see post topic headings that start out with "Hell yes" on a Disney forum. It just doesn't fit the image of what we are talking about.

I'll second the sentiment and ask that civility remain when commenting on the opinions of other.

[Son of the Morning]

Yes, well, I'm a newly registered reverend of the Universal Life Church (www.ulc.org), and I strongly disagree. I recognize that the meaning of a word is largely dependant on context and pandering to the most easily offended turns things as bland as toast. Milquetoast... whoahoho.

Seriously, fellas, lighten up.

[AwallaceUNC]

Actually, I wish they would have rasied the offer by a couple of billion, say to 65 billion or so. The Disney Board surely would have accepted it, and then Eisner would have been outta there!

Yeah, Eisner would be gone, but so would Disney. They wouldn't even own themselves, so what's the point? And Jens makes an excellent point... I see no reason to believe that Disney leadership would be any different from Eisner with Comcast. I'd rather have Mike stay in than lose the company (these are also the sentiments of Walt's daughter, Diane Miller), though I do want to see him go. It's best to have a little patience and oust him within the company.

-Aaron