LPWire: Disney Company Board Responds to Statement From Gold

Walt Disney Board Responds to Statement from Gold

December 1, 2003

Statement by the Independent Members of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company

We categorically reject Mr. Gold's untrue and unwarranted allegations about the Company and the Board.

As he has done repeatedly in the past, Mr. Gold in his letter persists in characterizing the Board's failure to agree with him as failure to consider the issues he has raised. In fact, the Board has extensively discussed and deliberated on each of the concerns he has expressed. Because the Board, after careful consideration, has refused to accept their principal recommendation to replace management, Mr. Gold and Mr. Disney have chosen their current destructive course of action.

Both Mr. Gold and Mr. Disney, along with every other director, voted in favor of the very retirement rules to which they now object and which apply to "all directors." It is unfortunate that the application of these rules has been used as an occasion to again raise unwarranted criticisms of the Company and of the Board.

It is a disservice to shareholders and to employees that the Company faces this distraction at a time when its performance is improving as a result of growth plans and initiatives being implemented by management with Board approval.

--Posted December 2, 2003
Source: Disney Company