Web Failure Is What Keeps Disney Down

What's really going on here? I keep coming back to the exact same theory that haunts all media: Google(GOOG Quote). This company is sapping all that is good about the media. And what Google isn't sapping, the Web is. The time may not be too distant when no one ever has to watch a commercial again. No one.

It didn't help, not one bit, that Disney said it has no payback for its years on the Web. It can do all it wants to link sites, do fantasy leagues off ESPN and make funny links to movies and TV programs. Who cares?

That doesn't mean Disney's stock is done. It does mean the company will have to go up slowly over time as it seeks ways to combat or coerce the Web.

I have to tell you, as someone who worked with Disney way back when, when it could have owned the Web -- few companies had a more forward approach to the Web in 1996, when they were our partners here at TheStreet.com -- this admission that nothing is going to pay off for Disney's Web efforts near-term is downright shocking. Defenseless against the Web, expenses still going higher -- that's a recipe for a challenged stock that may have to digest its gains for some time.

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