Disney is buying Pixar...

[American Oyaji]

...And Steve Jobs is becoming Disney's largest shareholder.

According to this article, we should be seeing a lot of Disney content on iTunes.
[t]disney[/t] [t]pixar[/t] [t]stevejobs[/t] [t]tech[/t] [t]media[/t]

[American Oyaji]

I dunno. I've been hearing on the news that it's pretty much a done deal.

[Mulboyne]

I dunno. I've been hearing on the news that it's pretty much a done deal.

"There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip"

[Charles]

Not going to happen. This is the same rumor that floats around every few years, except someone at The Telegraph posted it as fact. And we all know that all the authoritative Hollywood scoops come from British newspapers (yeah right). There is no way Jobs is going to trade his 51% of Pixar for 7% of Disney.

[American Oyaji]

I actually heard about this on CNN

[Mulboyne]

Something will have to happen since the Disney/Pixar production and distribution deal is about to expire. The press is betting that Disney wants to go the whole hog and make an acquisition but the other options are still open. There wouldn't be this degree of speculation, though, without there at least being a deal on the table.

[Charles]

There wouldn't be this degree of speculation, though, without there at least being a deal on the table.

There is a deal on the table, it just has nothing to do with Pixar. Disney's Board of Directors is meeting to sell its ABC Radio Network.

[drpepper]

From CNN
DISNEY: Here's the latest on the perhaps-to-happen, Pixar/Disney merger. The deal, to be considered by Disney's board today, has a high probability to go through, because Disney CEO Bob Iger -- bent on bringing "the magic back to Disney"-- wants it. But the price is a very high, $7 billion in stock. A source says Michael Eisner (who if nothing else is still a major stockholder) thinks that's too high. That case rests on the thought that when Disney was under attack from Comcast, Disney was claiming that its stock was undervalued. If that's the truth, then Disney (Research) should be placing a higher value than its current stock price on every share it hands over to Pixar (Research)..... Also there has been some chatter that Steve Jobs was slated to be chairman of Disney. As of now, that does not appear to be the case. And Pixar's creative genius, John Lasseter, is supposed to be joining Disney. But there's one knock on Lasseter, which is that supposedly he's spending a lot of time and energy these days on his vineyard. On the other hand, Lasseter is supposed to have a lot of very good people working for him.

[American Oyaji]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060124/media_nm/media_pixar_disney_dc

[mr. sparkle]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060124/media_nm/media_pixar_disney_dc

7.4 BILLION Dollars? Was Dr. Evil behind this sale?

[Greji]

Not going to happen. This is the same rumor that floats around every few years, except someone at The Telegraph posted it as fact. And we all know that all the authoritative Hollywood scoops come from British newspapers (yeah right). There is no way Jobs is going to trade his 51% of Pixar for 7% of Disney.

Yeah right! Hope you didn't buy any options!

[Quote=American Oyaji]http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060124/...ixar_disney_dc[/Quote]

"....
"The addition of Pixar significantly enhances Disney animation, which is a critical creative engine for driving growth across our businesses," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement announcing the deal.

Both boards of directors have approved the deal, which calls for 2.3 Disney shares to be issued for each Pixar share...."

[drpepper]

As usual Chucky boy is 100%.... wrong

[Charles]

NOW the interesting details come out. From the Disney press release:

The agreement will require the approval of Pixar's shareholders. Jobs, who owns approximately 50.6% of the outstanding Pixar shares, has agreed to vote a number of shares equal to 40% of the outstanding shares in favor of the transaction.

Pixar President Ed Catmull will serve as President of the new Pixar and Disney animation studios...Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter will be Chief Creative Officer of the animation studios, as well as Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering...Steve Jobs will be appointed to Disney's Board of Directors as a non-independent member. With the addition of Jobs, 11 of Disney's 14 directors will be independent.

This wasn't a Jobs deal, this was a Jobs decapitation. Jobs got a highly-diluted seat on the Disney board, but Catmull and Lasseter got the power. It is obvious from Jobs only voting 40% instead of 50.9% that this was a minority shareholder deal, presumably pushed by Catmull and Lasseter. It has long been known that Catmull and Lasseter wanted to seize Pixar from Jobs.

[Greji]

NOW the interesting details come out. From the Disney press release:This wasn't a Jobs deal, this was a Jobs decapitation. Jobs got a highly-diluted seat on the Disney board, but Catmull and Lasseter got the power. It is obvious from Jobs only voting 40% instead of 50.9% that this was a minority shareholder deal, presumably pushed by Catmull and Lasseter. It has long been known that Catmull and Lasseter wanted to seize Pixar from Jobs.

I am not sure that any permanent seat on Disney's Board of Directors could be called "highly-diluted"! He still retains shares of the new venture, plus I'm sure their paying him a bit more than a dollar a day.

We'll all probably be purchasing our new Mac Mini Mouse shortly!

[Charles]

I am not sure that any permanent seat on Disney's Board of Directors could be called "highly-diluted"! He still retains shares of the new venture, plus I'm sure their paying him a bit more than a dollar a day.

Jobs goes from 51% owner of Pixar to 7% owner of Disney. Jobs was basically the whole Board of Directors of Pixar since he was majority shareholder. But now he's just one of 14 board members at Disney. That seems like a major dilution to me. Jobs got decapitated again.

[Greji]

Jobs got decapitated again.

I think you should let Business Week know about Jobs's unfortunate situation. Granted he isn't getting a rose garden, but a large hunk of Disney sounds like a pretty good way of getting fired to me:

"....Now, Jobs is stepping into the Magic Kingdom. On Jan. 24, Walt Disney (DIS) agreed to pay $7.4 billion in stock to acquire Pixar Animation Studios (PIXR), where Jobs is chairman, CEO, and 50.6% owner. As part of the deal, Jobs will become the largest shareholder at Disney and take a seat on the entertainment giant's board. His top creative executive at Pixar, John A. Lasseter, will oversee the movies at both Pixar's and Disney's animation studios, "A Pixar Exec's Fairy-Tale Story"). Pixar's president, Edwin Catmull, will run the business side for the two studios...."
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2006/tc20060126_116869.htm

[Hokgwai]

Steve Jobs head of Disney......cool!

Steve Jobs....the sleeping giant has just got out of bed.

[drpepper]

hmmmm........................................