Most observers think Disney will expect $30 at least.The first question for Mr Roberts and for the president of Comcast, Stephen Burke, who until 1998 was himself a senior executive at Disney, is should they consider upping their offer? Comcast, America’s largest cable company, has a history of strict financial discipline and some think this scenario unlikely. Yet it is widely agreed that without some sweet- ening of the offer, perhaps with an element of cash, Disney investors won’t bite.Raymond Lee Katz, an analyst at Bear Stearns in New York, says the changing value of the share price now makes Comcast’s offer a “take-under” rather than a takeover. There is a wide consensus that the $60bn (£32bn) bid is too low and undervalues both Disney’s assets and its worth as one of America’s most beloved cultural institutions.Making matters worse, the hesitancy of Comcast’s own investors over the deal has sent its shares sliding. The ripples will roll through the entire industry, putting pressure on the other media Goliaths, from Time Warner to Viacom, to reassess their positions in the face of an eventual Comcast-Disney combination. And some among them, including Microsoft, must be pondering whether to become directly involved in the battle.The good news for Comcast has been the mostly positive reactions from analysts, at least to the model of vertical integration that is proposed. It represents a classic case of merging content, of which Disney has oodles, with distribution down the pipes, in this case the cables of Comcast. Wall Street’s best-known media analyst, Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch, hailed the deal as a “perfect, brilliant combination”.But in other respects, the signs are not so good for Mr Roberts.

Indeed, Mario Gabelli, the asset management chief who owns Disney stock, suggested it could have a full year before investors lose patience and rebel.At the same time, nothing is the way it was before Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts dropped his takeover bombshell. In other words, just days after cable giant Comcast made its hostile bid for the Walt Disney Company, we are still a long way from seeing “Comcastworld” featured in Florida travel brochures.
A few things have become clear since Comcast pounced on the Mouse last Wednesday. But this is a battle that will not be over quickly.The recently revamped board of Disney, with former US senator George Mitchell as its lead director, has some time to consider its options. The job of Michael Eisner, its chief executive for nearly 20 years and the recent target of sustained outside criticism, is in jeopardy. Which is why we should ignore whingeing critics and give praise to the Pop Idol people for helping us train the celebrities of tomorrow – girls with certificates for hair and make-up and attitude, just like a real Pop Idol.Peter sru.co.uk.

Travel to Orlando today and you will see that the signs have not changed at the entrance to the planet’s most fabled amusement park. But they’re vital to a modern experience economy, and we’ve got to do something about productivity or we’ll fall behind. (Remember Mike Mansfield’s Minipops of the early 1980s, where little girls in sequined boob-tubes sang grown-up songs on a dry-iced set?) They said it was unhealthy.Whatever, celebrity culture’s part of the under-eight market now, and you’ll never get them back. The essentials of the job – dressing up, going to parties, posing for photographs – are universally compelling and absolutely accessible And God knows we need celebrities We’re using them up at a truly appalling rate Their average life expectancy is about nine months now. There’s a gaggle of girls on a night uptown in a white stretch It’s like karaoke celebrity. Then, next thing you know, they’re on what appears to be the bridge of the Starship Enterprise They’re on a bit of a star trek.