After months and months of speculation about
whether Disney and Pixar would continue working together at all (for the past 12 years, Disney has "distribute[d]
and co-finance[d]...Pixar movies"), it appears that Disney may have just decided to swallow Pixar whole. According
to a report in today's Wall Street Journal, unnamed sources indicated that in a possible deal, "Disney
would pay a nominal premium to Pixar's current market value of $6.7 billion" in stock transaction that would leave
Steve Jobs (in addition to being king of the world, he's also Pixar's CEO) Disney's "largest individual
stockholder."Whoa. Keep in mind, however, that this is NOT a done deal. In addition, those same unnamed sources told the Journal that "other options are possible," so a buyout isn't necessarily the only way this relationship will continue. Still, though - whoa. We'll be following this throughout the day, and will post updates as we get them.
1. If Disney buys Pixar you have to think that it will replace Walt Disney Feature Animation as the primary focus of Disney's feature length animated films. I wonder how the staff at WDFA feels about that.
Posted at 10:08AM on Jan 19th 2006 by John Frost