The Internet Movie Database today reports that “The Walt Disney Company has hired corporate lawyer Martin Lipton, famed for developing strategies used by companies to avoid hostile takeovers. Lipton is credited with developing the ‘poison pill’ defense, a corporate strategy aimed at inflating the cost of a takeover, usually by issuing new shares or allowing shareholders to sell their existing stock at a premium. New York lawyer Ken Lefkowitz told Bloomberg News that Lipton ‘is being brought in because they want a strong, experienced M&A [mergers and acquisitions] guru to add respectability to the board’s decisions’.”

In related news, the IMBD continues with a story on Roy Disney’s chances of winning an Oscar for Destino, the short film that began work nearly 60 years ago, when Walt Disney brought Salvador Dali to the studio to design surrealist animated art work. “Many veteran animators are rooting for Roy to win the Oscar for best animated short film and use the awards platform to champion their art form against the man they regard as their nemesis, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. Roy Disney’s Destino, reportedly faces stiff competition from Pixar’s computer-animated Boundin’. Kevin Koch, president of the animation guild’s Hollywood local, told the Los Angeles Times today (Thursday): ‘I think people are relishing the potential sight of Roy getting up and giving the acceptance speech at the Oscars’. Disney himself told the newspaper that he had already written ‘487’ acceptance speeches, but when asked whether his final version would include a condemnation of Eisner, he replied: ‘I honestly think it will be implicit. I will leave it up to my own mouth’. Roy’s campaign to oust Eisner [continues], citing in particular Eisner’s apparent efforts to phase out hand-drawn animation at the studio and replace it with computer animation”.