Disney and Pixar pulled the trigger, and Christine is celebrating. Should Disney's shareholders be celebrating? $7.4 billion is a lot of money for little Pixar, and this merger raises a lot of questions.
For example, Disney's newest big shareholder is Steve Jobs -- probably the greatest salesman on the planet -- but is he great in a supporting role? He claims that the merger happened because Pixar was sold on Bob Iger's vision for Disney, a vision that presumably includes closer ties to Apple. Funny thing about visions. They tend to change or grow stale pretty rapidly. Could this be NeXT II?
Or how about the culture question? This is always an issue with mergers, and in the case of two companies creating entertainment content, culture seems especially important. Again, Jobs was reassuring, noting that culture received heavy emphasis in the meger discussions, but it will take more than merger discussions to finish the task.
I hope this merger succeeds, because I enjoy Pixar's animated films. But make no mistake: the hard work has just begun.
UPDATE: Chris Siebold has a short and irreverent history of Pixar here.
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1. Posted by Chris Phillips on February 20, 2006 @ 16:17 | Permalink
Did anyone see this odd little document filed with the Merger Agreement 8-K?
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1002114/000119312506012629/dex991.htm
Does anyone think this does anything? I picture some artsy type reading the merger agreement and saying "But what about our culture? How does the merger agreement protect it?" I'm most interested that the Pixar people defined it as a material contract.
2. Posted by Claire on April 12, 2006 @ 18:51 | Permalink
I don't see this as being good for the small shareholders of Pixar, in the long run. Historically, larger corporations are less nimble and more complacent and revenue and earnings growth slow down. Pixar has been stellar at growth as a standalone. I am not as hopeful with it as a part of Disney. Steve Jobs can do a lot of things but I'm not sure about his abilities to turn all of Disney around and run Apple at the same time. I voted against the merger even though it has no meaning since Jobs is majority shareholder. I think I shall sell my Pixar stock quickly as I'm not a big corporate Disney fan.
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