Disney chief scotches rumors of Yahoo takeover

Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner, last week, laid rumors to rest that he was

planning to take-over the free email service provider, Yahoo. Rumors have been

making rounds for quite some time, following the announcement of the resignation

of a second top Yahoo executive in less than a week. This apart, the firm has

also seen its share prices taking a plunge by 91 percent in the year.

"It's not on our target at the moment,'' said Eisner, when asked if he

were interested in acquiring the Internet company at its current share price.

Eisner, on several previous occasions, had expressed desire to take over Yahoo,

but had quoted



high acquisition prices as the main deterrent for the move. Although still worth
several billion dollars, Yahoo’s market value, at present, is a fraction of

the $200 billion value that was witnessed during the height of the Internet

stock frenzy early last year.

Meanwhile at Yahoo, a second top executive announced his resignation for

Yahoo’s failure in meeting the sales and earnings forecasts. Chief sales and

marketing officer Anil Singh’s announcement of his resignation in May, comes

close in the heels of Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle resigning, last week. However, Koogle

had said that he would continue in Yahoo as its chairman.

The news comes at a time, when Yahoo is reeling with its share prices falling

91 percent in the past year, following a decline in Internet advertising, which

accounts for most of the company's revenue. Yahoo executives also refused to

forecast the company's profit for the rest of the year, stating that they were

in no position to predict if the US economy would improve in the coming months.