Target Disney; How did an American icon like Mickey fall prey to a drab cable operator like Comcast? It's an intricate tale of bleeding-edge technology, big personalities--and hunger for power.

Publication: Newsweek

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Byline: Johnnie L. Roberts and David J. Jefferson, With Jennifer Ordonez

It was supposed to be Michael Eisner's week, a time to beat back the critics who'd been hammering away at him and his company's performance. Last Monday Disney took out full-page ads featuring a grinning Mickey and the swaggering tag line "The world's leading family entertainment brand." Its board released a letter to shareholders, accusing dissident former directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold of waging a "misleading and distorted campaign" against Disney. Eisner even seemed newly focused on finding a successor, an issue he had long avoided. He recently approached Time Warner exec Jeff Bewkes about joining Disney, as president of ABC, NEWSWEEK has learned. Top execs prepped for a gathering of analysts and big investors at Disney World, a two-day blowout of boat rides, fireworks and financial reports. Disney planned to trumpet its pledge of double-digit earnings growth through 2007 and make it clear that the magic was back at the Magic Kingdom.

Forget about fairy-tale endings. Eisner's plan to win back the confidence of Disney's shareholders was shattered when Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, announced that his company, although half Disney's size, intended to take over the Mouse House in a $48 billion hostile bid. Roberts had been plotting for weeks, but Disney's growing troubles--including its nasty split from Pixar--gave Comcast the perfect opening. After a weekend at the AT&T golf tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif., Roberts assembled his takeover team on Monday at the Westin Philadelphia, a hotel near Comcast headquarters. They discussed different ways to contact Eisner, including by mail or fax. But Roberts thought he should talk to Eisner directly. "Brian said, 'I want to call. I want to call now'," a person at the session recalled to NEWSWEEK. Roberts headed outside the...

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