Date: 7th February 2001

Eisner Resists Urge To Merge


Responding to critics who have accused him of being too unassertive in face of the aggressive posture of his rivals in building gigantic media empires, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner told analysts Tuesday that he has attempted to follow a prudent path. "We are not going to make an acquisition to give journalists headlines, to make bankers wealthy or for our egos," he remarked at one point. Referring specifically to the AOL Time Warner merger, Eisner said: "Do I have envy over everyone fainting over the AOL Time Warner acquisition and their being the darling of the day? Yes. But I wouldn't have given 65 percent of our company away for that." Likewise, he said, he has always been interested in acquiring the Internet portal Yahoo! "Yahoo is a great company," he said. "The problem is it's just overvalued."

Source: Studio Briefing