WORLD: Media Analysis - Eisner under the microscope while Comcast circles Disney.(Michael Eisner, Walt Disney )

Eisner's old-school style of management has won him few friends.

The status quo is no longer an option for the Mouse House. True, the board did give Disney's chief executive, Michael Eisner, a vote of confidence when it rejected the dollars 54 billion hostile takeover bid from Comcast, America's largest cable operator. Yet few believe that this is the end of the affair.

Even if Comcast doesn't return with a revamped offer, question-marks will continue to hang over the company and Eisner's leadership. It comes down to two related issues: the questionable quality of Eisner's strategic vision and his old-school management style.

Disney recruited Eisner 20 years ago when it faced a directional crisis. Eisner's successful strategy was to turn a somewhat cosy film studio into one of the emerging breed of cross-media conglomerates, buying up TV assets (the ABC network), expanding tourism interests such as theme parks and making the most of its cartoon characters as franchise properties.

As such, he had a strategic vision perfectly in tune with the times.

Now, however, his critics accuse him of being completely out of step.

The latest fad in US media thinking is that the future will be all about vertical integration - not just owning content but possessing the means to distribute it via cable, satellite or analogue terrestrial platforms.