Board members of the Walt Disney Co. assembled at Disneyland on Monday for an informal two-day retreat to discuss, among other things, whether to renew ceo Michael Eisner’s contract, which expires in 2006, the LOS ANGELES TIMES reported. CalPERS and other pension funds recently demanded a meeting with the board, which is scheduled for May 21, 2004.

The restructuring of EM.TV Merchandising AG is complete into EM.TV Vermögensverwaltungs AG, with the resulting company to be known henceforth as EM.TV AG, headquartered near Munich, Germany.

Word has leaked out that Sony Corp. is in talks to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for a cash deal valued at approximately $5 billion, according to AP and other news organizations. Sony and two private firms, Providence Equity Partners and Texas Pacific Group, have been examining MGM's books in anticipation of an offer that might take place in several weeks.

A deal would likely fold MGM into Sony Pictures Ent. and expand Sony's film library with an additional 4,200-plus titles, including lucrative United Artists franchises such as James Bond and the Pink Panther.

The ongoing war between The Walt Disney Co. and ex-Disney board members Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold has flared up again with the two sides debating the actual percentage of No Confidence votes received by Disney ceo and former chairman Michael Eisner and board member and newly elected chairman George Mitchell.

Accel-KKR, a technology-oriented private equity firm, will acquire Alias, the maker of Maya, from SGI for $57.5 million.

SPIN takes its vision to Vancouver, creating a new studio, SPIN West VFX. The new studio (SPIN is headquartered in Toronto with another shop in Atlanta) has hit the ground running, landing vfx work on the much-anticipated television miniseries STEPHEN KING'S KINGDOM HOSPITAL. Close behind the Stephen King production is work for STARGATE SG1 (Sci Fi Channel) and SPYMATES (Keystone Pictures).

13 member-companies of TV France International will be presenting programs at the Second Regional Showcase in Beirut at the Sofitel Gabriel, April 20 – 21, 2004. To date, 44 executives, representing Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, and Tunisia, have confirmed their presence. The Film and Television sections of the French embassies in Amman and Beirut are supporting the event, which is aimed at promoting the French productions in the Near and Middle East.

Dean Valentine, former UPN president/ceo and president of Walt Disney Television, has partnered with prominent entertainment execs Richard Cohen and Nicolas Van Dyk to form First Family Entertainment in Los Angeles. The new company will develop and produce niche-oriented, direct-to-DVD/video programming for family audiences. The new venture already has inked a home video distribution deal with MGM.

Roy Disney sued the Walt Disney Co. on April 8 to release information on how many employees participated in last month's protest vote against the reelection of chief exec Michael Eisner, the LOS ANGELES TIMES reported.

In the suit filed in Delaware Chancery Court, Disney asked the court to make the company show documents, records, proxies and ballots from the annual meeting in Philadelphia.

Visual effects vet and former Secret Lab head Hoyt Yeatman has formed Whamaphram Prods. to produce CG animated features, reported VARIETY. Burbank-based toon house will specialize in completely animated and hybrid live-action/animated films.

The new studio is pitching its first project G-FORCE to several studios. The live-action family adventure would chronicle the NSA's top secret unit of highly intelligent, talking animals. Yeatman plans to direct the film.

Plan-B Toys and Radioactive Clown have announced a new series of highly detailed, historically accurate, WWII action figures based on Activision's award-winning PC game, CALL OF DUTY. Series 1 will be available in North America and Europe May 2004.

TOKYOPOP Inc. and Disney Publishing Worldwide are teaming on a new line of Cine-Manga books. The first new Disney Cine-Manga title, LILO & STITCH, is set to debut in stores April 2004, with versions of THAT'S SO RAVEN, PRINCESS DIARIES 2, THE INCREDIBLES and THE LIZZIE MCGUIRE MOVIE set to roll out throughout the year. In total, there will be more than 24 Disney Cine-Manga projects slated for release over the next three years.

Cooper Owen is hosting an "At the Movies" auction, which will feature two original staff artist drawings of Mickey Mouse. The sketches from the Walt Disney Studios show multiple Mickey Mouse drawings running away from the viewer. Each sketch measures approximately 12x10 inches (30x25 cm). The starting bid will range between £150-200.

HarperCollins Children’s Books will launch a book series based on the new television series, ASTRO BOY, produced by Sony Pictures Ent. Japan and Tezuka Prods. HarperKids Ent. has been granted North American English-language rights from Sony Pictures Consumer Products. HarperCollins will launch the 30 book program in September 2004 with seven titles: one color and activity book, one color and sticker book, two beginning readers, two storybooks, and one chapter book.

The voice cast of THE SIMPSONS has stopped working to force Twentieth Century Fox TV to finalize their new contracts, reported VARIETY. The cast's previous three-year contracts expired several months back. Apparently, the cast has not showed up for two script readings over the past few weeks. Actors participating in the stoppage include Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Comic Book Guy), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and others), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Julie Kavner (Marge) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart).

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy dismissed the 13-year-old lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co. brought by Stephen Slesinger Inc., the owners of the Winnie the Pooh merchandising rights, after concluding that they "tampered with the administration of justice" by hiring a private investigator to take documents from Disney's trash bins. Monday’s ruling spares Disney from having to pay royalties and damages that might have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Disney.

With the acquisition of the company by former Nelvana execs Michael Hirsh and Toper Taylor complete, Cinar's name has been officially changed to Cookie Jar Ent. The once publicly traded company will now be a private entity. The principals include Hirsh and Taylor along with Steve and Patty Carson, TD Capital Canadian Private Equity Partners and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). The overall Cookie Jar Group also includes leading education companies Carson-Dellosa and HighReach Learning.

Announced at MIP-TV, independent animation studio Mike Young Prods (MYP) announced the formation of Taffy Ent., the new business unit dedicated to the rights management and worldwide distribution of family and children’s entertainment. Mike and Liz Young and Bill Schultz created Taffy to own and represent its library as well as to actively seek to acquire rights to other animation properties.

Comcast Corp. announced that it has signed an agreement with Vulcan Programming Inc. to acquire TechTV Inc. Comcast plans to merge TechTV with G4, the Comcast-owned television network devoted to videogames and the gamer lifestyle. The deal increases Comcast’s content portfolio and expands G4’s distribution. The combined channel will be available to 44 million cable and satellite customers nationwide.

Entertainment Rights has announced that it has purchased the complete rights to the Filmation library from Hallmark Entertainment in a $20 million deal. The library includes more than 1,700 hours of programming, featuring HE-MAN AND MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, SHE-RA, GHOSTBUSTERS, MY FAVOURITE MARTIAN, THE LONE RANGER, THE ARCHIES, FAT ALBERT, SABRINA and BRAVESTAR.