Ever since Bob Iger had a midnight meeting with Pixar his first weekend as CEO [see Toyboy (2)] thoughts of Disney acquiring Pixar (and cementing their CGI animation destiny) had gone from done to dead. Now it's happened.
As of January 25, 2006, Disney agreed to buy Pixar in a $7.5 billion deal.
But what will that do to the entertainment landscape?
Jobs, always the visionary, is now a Disney board member. This addition to Disney's team could bring a lot of ideas to the table, especially in the techno-changing world of distribution. But Hollywood outsiders have never done well in Hollywood. (Case in point: the rash of Japanese studio acquisitions in the '80s that led to … nada.)
Also, Jobs is not a “content” man. Walt Disney was a content man. Jeffrey Katzenberg was a content man. Steve isn’t. Granted, he’s never tried to apply a “content vision” to Pixar … but could Disney be too tempting to resist? It’s a pretty amazing toy store to play around in.
Bad vision led to a Disney flat-line in the ‘70s. Could Jobs lead the way to Disney destruction in the new millennium?
And with Disney out of the running, where will all those great licensing characters come from?
We’ll stay tuned on this one.
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