Disney buys Pixar for $7.4B
p2p news / p2pnet: Pixar, one of the only major movie studios to consistently produce genuinely good features, has gone to Walt Disney for $7.4 billion.
“Some Disney shareholders are no doubt grumbling today about why the company shelled out big bucks to purchase a company that does what Disney used to do better than everyone,” says David Lazarus in his long and interesting San Francisco Chronicle analysis of the situation…
“But with 20-20 hindsight, it’s clear that Disney’s acquisition of Pixar was virtually inevitable,” he says. “And the pieces started falling into place not in the past few weeks as merger talks picked up steam, and not in 2004 when Pixar served notice that it wanted some major changes in the relationship of the two companies.
“No, this deal was all but consummated many years before – in 1994, to be precise. That was the year in which several seminal events transpired that would ultimately and inescapably result in the creation of the greatest force in animation since Uncle Walt first played with the notion in 1928 of a cartoon mouse being a steamboat captain.”
It was also the year then Disney studio chief, Jeffrey Katzenberg, “got his first serious look at a feature-length project in the works at Pixar called ‘Toy Story,’ which would be released a year later and would revolutionize the animation field.”
Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas for a mere $10 million in 1986.
And now he’s selling it for $7.4 billion.
So will iTunes now be carrying Disney movies? And, in one of what are possibly two of the most important question from the perspective of the millions of people hooked on the amazing Pixar animations, will Team Mickey be able to resist ‘fixing’ the company?
Meanwhile, the all-stock deal puts Steve Jobs into a powerful position as he becomes Disney’s largest shareholder.
“Jobs, who controls more than half of Pixar’s stock and also heads Apple Computer Inc., will also join Disney’s board,” says the Detroit Free Press. “Disney has cofinanced and distributed Pixar’s animated films for 12 years, splitting the profits. But that deal expires in June after Pixar delivers ‘Cars’.”
The other important question is: Will Steve Jobs now become Disney’s New Main Man?
Also See:
genuinely good – Disney, Pixar partnership, January 20, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle – A deal bound to happen, January 25, 2006
Detroit Free Press – Disney to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion, January 25, 2006
January 26th, 2006 at 1:33 am
Who even gives a fuck?
Nothing against the story or you, Jon, by the way. Disney makes lame pictures – they’ve lost their edge.
January 26th, 2006 at 3:35 am
Seems like a stupid purchase…money would have been better spent buying talent.
January 26th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Disney will screw Pixar into the ground without even knowing they’re doing it. Some bureacrat in Disney management will simply be completely unable to resist making Pixar “integrate” their policies, work practices etc etc and Pixar will end up being just another division of Disney.
I just hope the talented people currently at Pixar can find other jobs once Pixar is wiped out by Disney. I’d personally recommend those people leave right now. Don’t hang around, you won’t be able to prevent Disney screwing it all up, no matter what you think. Don’t give yourself ulcers trying to stop the inevitable. Think of your health, and just get out. Now.