M-I-C... See Ya Real Soon?

摘要

Is this a good time to talk?" brian Roberts asks. The CeO of Comcast, the largest cable company in the U. S., is on the phone for a quick interview before jetting off to meet with investors and pitch his latest gambit: a $66 billion hostile takeover of the Walt Disney Co. He had just asked that very question, after a fashion, of Disney CEO Michael Eisner. "I asked Michael, did he see a scenario where we can do this together?" Roberts recalls of their phone-conversation. He won't characterize the rest of their chat, although you don't have to be an Imagineer to know Eisner's answer. So Roberts, polite as ever, precipitated a takeover brawl that has Wall Street investment bankers and Hollywood power players salivating: the Cable Guy from Philadelphia vs. the Monarch of the Magic Kingdom. For Roberts, who started his career selling subscriptions door to door for his father's fledgling cable company, it is the boldest move of a 23-year run at Comcast. And it threatens the reign of Eisner, one of the information age's legendary moguls. "He will not go down without a fight," says Joe Roth, former chairman of Walt Disney Studios.