DISNEY TO SELL STAKE IN INFOSEEK.Byline: Staff and Wire Services BURBANK - Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (ISIN: DE0005557508, FWB: DTE, NYSE: DT, LSE: DEU, TYO: 9496 ) (abbreviated DTAG) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Germany and in the EU. is discussing buying The Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co.'s 25 percent stake in the German-language version of the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the search engine Infoseek. The discussions that Deutsche Telekom disclosed Friday could clear the way for Disney to expand its Go Network Internet site in Europe. Disney decided in January to abandon plans for Go.com as an Internet portal, saying the site would be refocused on recreation, entertainment and leisure. Disney's portion of the Go.com site has since been redesigned to reflect a theme-park layout. Disney formed Go.com after buying U.S.-based Infoseek last fall. Disney acquired a 43 percent share in Infoseek in June 1998 after selling its Starwave site to Infoseek. Later, Disney bought the remainder of Infoseek. At the end of the 1999 fiscal year, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from September 22, 1984 to September 30, 2005. Early life Michael Eisner was born to a wealthy family in Mt. Kisco, New York, and raised on Park Avenue in Manhattan. proposed a series of initiatives designed to improve the company's financial health. Among them was the elimination of assets that don't perform to expectations and those that don't quite fit the company's other endeavors. ``If an asset is non-core, or doesn't generate an adequate return on capital, we will discontinue dis·con·tin·ue v. dis·con·tin·ued, dis·con·tin·u·ing, dis·con·tin·ues v.tr. 1. To stop doing or providing (something); end or abandon: it, sell it or finance it differently,'' Eisner wrote in his letter to shareholders in the 1999 annual report. Deutsche Telekom already owns a 25 percent stake in the German Infoseek and a deal would give it a tight grip on the country's No. 2 search engine. The stake will be controlled by Telekom's Internet subsidiary, T-Online. The remaining investors behind the German Infoseek are the publishing house Axel Springer Axel Springer (May 2, 1912, Altona, Hamburg - September 22, 1985, West Berlin), was a German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG publishing company. Springer was born as Axel Cäsar Springer in Hamburg, where his father worked as publisher. Verlag and Holtzbrinck Networks AG, which each hold a 25 percent stake. Disney officials declined Friday to comment on the report. |
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