The struggle for control of Disney was hidden behind the chief executive's corporate script.
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published February 21, 2004
The latest show from Walt Disney Co. hit prime time Friday night: The power struggle to control the entertainment giant.
"How tough has all this been for you?" asked Larry King on his show, Larry King Live on CNN.
"Actually, it's been a very good period," answered Michael Eisner, chairman and chief executive. "This company has been operating fantastically."
The hour-long appearance was the latest chapter in a fight for control of Disney that gets fiercer by the day.
After 20 years at the helm, Eisner's continued rule is being challenged in advance of the company's annual meeting March 3 by former board members Stanley Gold and Roy Disney, Walt's nephew. The pair hope to make their point by getting 15 to 20 percent of shareholders to vote against Eisner and a slate of directors.
Meanwhile, an unrelated, unsolicited $54-billion bid by cable giant Comcast Corp. to swallow Disney looms large as Einser's forces map defenses to keep the company independent. While Disney has rejected the Comcast offer, and Roy Disney on Friday called it "inadequate," the possibility of a bidding war is crystallizing the notion that Disney's future may well be Eisner-free anyway.
It was hard to tell on the talk show Friday. Some callers criticized the state of Disney theme parks. One flat out announced she supported the management. But not everyone got the plot. One caller asked Eisner's help getting an audience for a sitcom screenplay while another asked if Walt Disney's body really is cryogenically stored.
"He was not frozen," said Eisner patiently. "I can assure you. I have been to the cemetery and seen the grave."
Wearing a subdued brown tie accented with black mouse ears, Eisner pretty much stuck to the corporate script. The Disney board is behind him. Apple's Steve Jobs really wanted Pixar to try it alone rather than stick with a Disney partnership. While Disney's performance has been lackluster in recent years, the company is reaping double digit earnings growth as the economy improves.
"We had invested billions in our parks in the few years before 9/11, then advertising and tourism were hurt," he said. "Now it is all turning back up and everything we invested in is benefitting us."
Attendance at Walt Disney World is up 10 percent in the second quarter, and numbers of international visitors are up 12 percent.
Proxy battles usually are fought in a series of letters, Power Point presentations and phone calls to blocks of shareholders. But both sides in the Disney dispute have turned up the volume in far more visible places.
After making a presentation at the Harvard Business School and writing an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal, Gold appeared at the New York Times for an interview. Disney president Robert Iger, meantime, offered rare interviews to CNBC and Bloomberg Radio late Thursday as Eisner's handlers were busy elbowing their way onto the King show.
King had already booked Regis Philbin, who was to plug the premier of Super Millionaire, which debuts on ABC-TV Sunday. Philbin hosts the sequel to Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, a quiz show that provided Disney's broadcast network a ratings bonanza that critics charge was cut short prematurely by Eisner airing it four nights a week.
Such old Disney synergy was not part of the program by Friday night. Philbin suddenly took ill. Eisner got the whole hour.
