Disney on Ice

So is Disney (NYSE: DIS) for sale or not? Following Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) surprising bid for the company last month, each side played hard to get. Disney rejected the bid as too low. Comcast didn't counter with a better offer.

Irreconcilable differences? Hardly. Yesterday, Disney President Bob Iger speculated that Comcast was working on a sweeter proposal. "There is an inevitability to another offer being made that is in all likelihood higher than the offer that was made," he opined at a Bear Stearns investor conference.

Strange mating rituals, indeed. As it stands, the dance does no one any good. It's easy to see why Disney blew off Comcast's initial bid. At 0.78 a share, the all-stock deal values Disney at just $23.31 a share. That was a weak premium to what Disney fetched before the offer became public, and it's a significant discount to where the stock is today.

Until the companies make a clean break or run off and elope to get this over with, the stocks will remain in their respective holding patterns. Disney can't trade much lower with the original Comcast bid serving as a floor, while Comcast's shares can't trade much higher if investors fear the potential dilution if Disney is absorbed into its bloodstream.

Marrying content and distribution can work, but you have to gloss over the sad case that is Time Warner (NYSE: TWX). There can be synergy in a pairing of powerhouses, so long as you skim past Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) struggle to get Compaq to contribute to the bottom line. So why are Comcast and Disney in the throes of hooking up?

Disney is vulnerable. There was a remarkably symbolic vote calling for new leadership at the helm at last week's annual shareholder meeting. The company has been chastised more for what went wrong in 2002 than buttered up for what went right in 2003. Disney is getting better -- though arguably it should be doing even better, and it does have some serious compensation issues to tackle. But Comcast isn't necessarily the answer to the question that no one is even asking.

Does the Comcast, Disney pairing make sense? What would you do if you were CEO Michael Eisner? What would you do if you were Roy Disney Jr.? All this and more -- in the Disney discussion board. Only on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares in Disney and he's out in Disney World every other month.