Walt Disney once said: "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."
But Mickey Mouse was hard to make out in yesterday's hostile $66bn (£35bn) bid for the Walt Disney company by America's biggest cable company, Comcast. In the context of a modern media world, this was all about the marriage of content and distribution and the exploitation of brands.
Jessica Reif Cohen, an influential Wall Street analyst with Merrill Lynch, described the offer as an "amazingly brilliant combination. It makes perfect sense".
Comcast's bid has been a long time coming. In 1999 Fortune Magazine ran a cover story describing Disney as the "world's most troubled entertainment giant".
When Michael Eisner joined the company in 1984 as chief executive, the corporate wolves were again at the door. At that point, Disney was loved worldwide but the company had annual revenues of $1.7bn and a market value of little over $2bn, a tasty morsel for a potential buyer.
Under Mr Eisner's leadership, Disney's value rose to a peak of $90bn. He spent billions of pounds on the ABC television network, built a successful stage business and gave a new lease of life to the struggling animated film division with hits such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
Disney also owns a clutch of valuable cable TV channels led by the sports network ESPN, the live action Hollywood studio behind Pirates of the Caribbean, and Miramax, the studio perennially popular with panel judges for the Oscars.
This phenomenal global empire started in a small studio above a Californian real estate office in 1923, where 22-year-old Walt Disney started producing cartoons. A distributor agreed to back a series based on Disney's first short and he brought in his brother Roy to form the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio the same year. Mickey Mouse made his debut in 1928 and the company received its first Oscar in 1932.
Disney confirmed its position as a major Hollywood player in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. During the second world war a flurry of animated masterpieces such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi were released.
In the 1950s the company expanded into TV, released its first live action film and opened Disneyland. Walt Disney died in 1966 and his brother passed away five years later, but the empire continued to expand, with Walt Disney World opening in Florida in 1971.
Mr Eisner's long tenure at Disney and the impact he has had on the company have made him a modern-day Walt in the eyes of some.
But the recovery he began was faltering by the mid-1990s. Many point to the death of Mr Eisner's deputy, Frank Wells, in a helicopter accident as the turning point.
In 1999 Eisner had a very public falling out with former studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg that cost $270m. Coming just a few years after Michael Ovitz received a $140m severance payment for 15 months' work as Disney's president, shareholders grew increasingly angry. A welter of lawsuits over the payoffs followed.
Shareholder activists have long criticised the board, filled with Eisner appointments, including the head of his child's elementary school.
Things worsened when the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and an economic downturn reduced theme park attendances and exacerbated an advertising drought at ABC, already suffering from falling ratings.
Treasure Planet, an ambitious $140m reworking of Treasure Island, flopped at the box office, forcing the company to take a $74m write down in its accounts.
The company is selling off its high street stores and has cut the size of its animation workforce from 2,200 in 1999 to just 600 today. Disney brought forward its first quarter results yesterday to show that its performance is improving. It recorded a sharp increase in profits to $866m. But that may not be enough.
Two months ago Roy Disney, the last remaining member of the family on the board, resigned and launched a withering attack on Mr Eisner. The nephew of Walt and son of co-founder Roy accused Mr Eisner of destroying his family's heritage in a three-page tirade.
After "19 years at the helm, you are no longer the best person to run the Walt Disney company," he said. He added that the chief executive now presided over a company that had "lost its focus, its creative energy and its heritage".
Roy Disney has maintained his ferocious assault on the Disney chief executive, and has invited shareholders to a presentation in Philadelphia, a day ahead of the company's annual meeting.
In an effort to calm any restive shareholders, Disney this week said it had begun talks on plans for Mr Eisner's successor. Steve Burke, who left Disney in 1998 after 12 years, could be his replacement.
The latest attack on Mr Eisner's leadership came shortly after Disney suffered another blow. Pixar, the computer-animation film studio behind Finding Nemo and Toy Story, said last month that it was ending its money-spinning partnership with Disney. It will produce two more films for the media group before 2006. Between 2000 and 2005 the Pixar deal is expected to contribute around 45% of the operating profits at Disney's film studio. Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs shared the concerns of Roy Disney. Mr Jobs complained of pressure to make sequels and franchises instead of fresh ideas.
He also expressed some sympathy for Disney's shareholders when he said "it's a shame that Disney won't be participating in Pixar's future success". No matter what the outcome of yesterday's extraordinary move by Comcast, it appears increasingly likely that Mr Eisner will not be participating in Disney's future either.
The wonderful world of Disney
Theme parks and resorts
California, Florida, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong
Disney stores
474 in North America and Europe
Film studios
Buena Vista, Miramax and Touchstone
Animation
From Steamboat Willie in 1928, which introduced Mickey Mouse, to Pirates of the Caribbean,which made $750m, last year
TV
ABC TV network (Alias, NYPD Blue, 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter), ESPN (sports channel),
Disney cable channel (seen in 83m US homes, 100m homes worldwide)
A residential community
Celebration town in Florida
An ice hockey team
The Mighty Ducks, named after a 1992 Disney flick about an inept team
Internet
Sites get 38m hits a month
