In their continuing attempts to strike a deal with Disney, the New York Post reports that Comcast have been “wooing” Pixar Animation, or more precisely Steve Jobs, believing that “they will have an easier time convincing Disney shareholders to accept their buyout proposal if it is likely to come with a renewed movie deal with Pixar”. It’s also reported in the story that Jobs himself is in “active discussions” with other investors to put together an Apple/Pixar bid for The Walt Disney Company. Mr Jobs would not comment, but a Pixar source said that “Steve is looking very closely at this”. Meanwhile, Michael Eisner has been playing down the loss of Pixar and the unexpected Comcast bid by wisecracking to investors in Florida yesterday. “[Steve Jobs] created the computer, or at least Windows, or whatever he created, and did a good job”, he said, according to Macworld, while he also added: “Acquisitions? Oh – we’re buying Comcast!” in an attempt to deflect the news of the $66bn takeover bid.

In the UK’s The Times newspaper, the business section has been full of coverage concerning the proposed merger, including the fact that Roy Disney himself could be backing the Comcast bid. The cable giant has been reported to have had talks with Stanley Gold, Roy’s business partner and friend, making it clear that Brian Roberts, chief executive of Comcast, is prepared to exert as much pressure as he can to bring Disney to the table. Mr Gold is expected to tell Comcast in New York that the takeover bid would be bolstered by the presence of a Disney family member on the proposed new board. The Times Online has more on this story, as well as news of possible counter bids from other media giants.

Finally, Roy’s own site, Save Disney, has a heap of up-to-the-second online reports on the on-going Disney-Comcast story, including rumors of Microsoft’s role in all of this, and Comcast’s own Steve Burke’s chances of running the Mouse House…these are very interesting times we’re living in…

-Source: The Times.