BREAKING: Disney buys Pixar for a cool $7.4 billion
Filed under: Animation, Classics, Deals, Disney, Newsstand
As previously speculated, Disney's purchase of Pixar - to be
completed this summer - will be an all-stock one worth about $7.4 billion. Though no layoffs have been announced, the
purchase of Pixar is expected to have a major impact on the employees of Disney's existent animation division. Right
now, however, only the top level is changing: Steve Jobs is joining Disney's board (and, as previously mentioned, will
be one of the company's biggest shareholder), and Pixar's heads are sliding into the leadership positions of the
newly-created Pixar and Disney animation studios.The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and needs only the vote of Pixar's shareholders to go through. And, Since Steve Jobs personally owns just over 50% of Pixar stock, it's safe to say that Disney won't be jumping the gun too much with today's press conference (scheduled for 515pm ET).
The fallout from this massive buy will certainly be extensive; we'll be bringing you the highlights as they happen.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-24-2006 @ 5:44PM
John Frost said...
Looks like Disney gets everything they want and Steve Jobs gets some new influence in Hollywood. I just liveblogged the CNBC interview with Jobs and Iger on my blog. Looked like two chums, one selling a car to the other.
I think this bodes well for Disney. Especially if John Lasseter is given free reign in Animation and able to stop some of the lower quality projects currently in the pipeline at Disney.
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1-24-2006 @ 6:28PM
Zootube said...
This could be a good move or bad move depending on the moves made from the corporate view. Jobs is more interested in what the foundation of what Walt himself had the idea of with Disney animation. The recent push of Disney animation films not tied to Pixar are not up to standard. My hope is a return to imaginative story line and less bottom dollar. Hopefully there will be no stranglehold on the inventive Pixar machine.
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1-24-2006 @ 10:43PM
John Molina said...
Let's hope Zootube is right. If Jobs does have a more original/traditional Walt Disney approach to animation and technology, we shouldn't be seeing crappy sequels.
Meanwhile... in the deep dark depths of the Disney dungeons, desperate animators struggle to complete Snow White 4, direct-to-DVD this spring! (Well, we can hope not..)
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