If Comcast succeeds with its hostile takeover bid for Disney, it would mark the return of Comcast’s Steve Burke to the company where he was once on the fast track.
Burke, who left Disney in 1998 to become a top executive at Comcast, has been a driving force behind Comcast’s efforts to take over Disney.
“Steve Burke has always wanted to take a run at Disney,” said one source. “He’s been disgruntled about [Disney CEO Michael] Eisner.”
At Disney, where Burke worked for 12 years and steadily rose through the ranks, he became an oft-mentioned successor to Eisner until he bolted for Comcast in 1998.
When he left, he became another name on the list of successful executives whom Eisner drove from the company, prompting critics to charge that Disney had no successful succession plan – one of the chief criticisms among angry shareholders.
Others once considered potential Eisner replacements, including Michael Ovitz and Jeffrey Katzenberg, had high-profile – and often nasty – exits from the company.
At Comcast, Burke has headed the company’s integration of AT&T Broadband – the blockbuster acquisition that transformed the company into the largest cable operator in the country.
Yesterday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts praised Burke and noted that some Disney shareholders have been angling for Burke to return to the company.
“There’s been talk that they might want to bring Burke back,” Roberts said. “With this deal, they get that plus 21 million [cable subscribers], 30 years of work and a $5 billion premium. Not bad for a day’s work.”
Said one high-level media industry insider, “He’s an incredibly strong executive, and he did do a good job of integrating AT&T Broadband.”
But Burke’s connection to Disney goes deeper. His father, Dan Burke, once ran Capital Cities, which acquired the ABC Network in the mid-1980s and, in turn, sold it to Disney in 1995.