Disney won't bid for AOL, says exec

Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger detailed several ways that Disney hopes to benefit from high-tech, but one of them isn't buying AOL, which many expect to be for sale soon, an Associated Press report said.

Iger said the company was still looking for new ways to adapt as people make greater use of technology to get entertainment, such as using searches on Google or downloading movies and TV shows from Apple's iTunes service, the report said.

Speaking to a media conference in New York hosted by The McGraw-Hill Cos., which owns BusinessWeek magazine and Standard & Poor's, he left open the possibility of making acquisitions. But he ruled out Time Warner's AOL as a purchase target, the Associated Press report said.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has said AOL will separate its rapidly declining dial-up internet service from its online portal and advertising platform, setting the stage for a sale of some or all of AOL, something investors have been clamoring for, the report said.

Iger said Disney had done fairly well in DVD sales despite the market 'flattening,' and he expects some lift from the emergence of Sony's Blu-ray format as the winner in a contest for next-generation DVDs formats, beating out a rival called HD-DVD, the report further said.