Company Town: Disney’s Mega-Merger : THE INTERVIEW : Charlie Never Thought He’d Work for a Guy Named Mickey

Michael Eisner, chairman of Walt Disney Co., and Thomas S. Murphy, chairman of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., first discussed their mega-deal on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program Monday. Here’s a transcript of part of the interview by Charles Gibson, host of the program:

Murphy: Charlie, let me ask you a question. I said, wouldn’t you be proud to be associated with Disney?

Gibson: I . . . I’m. . . .

Eisner: There you go.

Gibson: . . . I . . . I never. . . .

Murphy: And I’m . . . no, this is . . . I’m serious . . . quite serious, I mean, that’s. . . .

Gibson: I never thought I’d work. . . .

Murphy: . . . I’m proud of it.

Gibson: . . . I never thought I’d work for a guy named Mickey. Yes, sure, I’ve [unintelligible]

Murphy: You know, but it’s “Snow White” and it’s “The Lion King,” all those wonderful animated shows that they’ve done, all the creative activity in that company.

Gibson: No, there are . . . there are changes in the marketplace and in the . . . in regulatory rules that make this somewhat logical, and I guess while everyone is surprised, in some ways not surprised. There was a sort of logic to this that . . . that has made sense. I . . . I can’t go in the tank and say, yes, this is great, you know, I mean, I have . . . I still have . . . here as an objective interviewer.

Murphy: Kind of nice to get him, isn’t it?

Eisner: Well, he’s fumbling around isn’t he? And on the air too, it’s perfect. So you don’t like the deal, do you, Charlie?

Gibson: Don’t you think this would be a good time for a commercial, everybody?