And in other news today (or rather yesterday if you’re American): Disney buys Pixar from Apple’s Steve Jobs. The deal was rumoured for a while but it wasn’t confirmed until tuesday. Both companies have agreed to an ‘all-stock merger’ that will give Pixar shareholders 2.3 shares of Disney for each share they presently own in Pixar. It’s a deal valued at slightly more than $7.5 billion. Jobs will also get a chair in the board of directors: a fact that has some observers already tipping him to be Disney’s new chairman. One year ago Jobs and former Disney boss Michael Eisner had a very public falling out. When Eisner left Disney, the new boss Robert Iger, immediately tried to get Jobs back on board.
The first sign that relations between the two had thawed was when Disney agreed to sell television programmes from its ABC channel, including hits Desperate Housewives and Lost, through Apple’s iTunes music and video systems.
Many market analysts believe that Jobs may manage to shake things up at Disney, especially as he thinks that “innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”.
Time will tell…