Steve Jobs and Pixar vs. Disney

[Two Lane Blacktop]

Disney Building a Unit to Make Pixar Sequel Movies

Mind you, Disney thinks Home On The Range only bombed because it was in 2D.



2LB

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

(Mac never fails...)

Disney, Pixar Talks Seen Likely After Eisner Exit

Mon Mar 14, 4:39 PM ET Entertainment - Reuters

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pixar Animation Studios Inc. likely will reopen talks on a distribution deal with the Walt Disney Co. now that Disney CEO Michael Eisner is set to depart in September, analysts said on Monday.

Eisner, who will be replaced by Disney President Robert Iger, was seen as the main stumbling block for Disney to renew its lucrative partnership with Pixar because of his turbulent relationship with Pixar Chief Executive Steve Jobs (news - web sites).

Pixar, which produced such blockbuster films as "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" in its partnership with Disney, was also seen as holding a better bargaining position with Iger at Disney's helm.

"I just think this puts a lot of pressure on the Walt Disney Company," Fulcrum Global Partners analyst Rich Greenfield said. "Bob Iger, once he takes over, will be faced with this negotiation as one of his first acts as CEO ... Disney needs (Pixar) very badly."

Greenfield said Jobs would likely press his advantage to get better terms than he could have squeezed from Eisner. Pixar films have taken in about $3 billion at the box office worldwide, and Disney has had the bigger share of profit.

"The pressure is on Disney, not Pixar," Greenfield said.

Last month, Jobs told analysts that Pixar "likely ... will not forge a new relationship with Disney beyond our current deal," but did not elaborate about how far talks with Disney had progressed or where else Pixar might look for a partner.

Pixar has pushed back its target date for finding a new distributor a number of times and said that "musical chairs" in Hollywood was part of the reason, giving some hopes that a new Disney deal was possible.

Anthony Sabino, a business and law professor at St. John's University in New York, warned that Pixar would play an important part in helping Iger win the board's confidence.

"One of his top priorities and maybe his top priority has got to be to reach out to Pixar and negotiate with them again," Sabino said.

Lehman Brothers analyst Anthony DiClemente called the development at Disney "not ... a huge surprise to Pixar investors" and in a research note said a deal was "less likely" between the two companies.

Pixar's partnership with Disney expires with the June 9, 2006, release of its seventh film, "Cars," and it must have a new distributor in place before its eighth film is released in summer of 2007.

Pixar spokesman Tom Sarris on Monday said the company had no further comment on the distributor search or about developments at Disney. Sarris would not say whether Jobs and Iger had ever met.

Shares of Pixar closed up $1.98, or 2.2 percent, at $90.96 on Nasdaq.

[Raikus]

Pixar's Ranft dies in crash

By Sheigh Crabtree
Joe Ranft, Pixar Animation Studios' head of story for more than a decade and a cornerstone of the company's creative team, died Tuesday when the car he was riding in plunged into the ocean after running off the road in Mendocino County, Calif. He was 45.

A spokeswoman for the Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner's Office confirmed Wednesday that Ranft was one of two people who died when the 2004 Honda Element they were traveling in veered off the road while heading north on Highway 1.

The California Highway Patrol said the crash occurred at about 3 p.m. Tuesday as the driver tried to regain control of the car after swerving when he headed into a tight left curve. The car fell 130 feet over the side of the road, overturning twice before it landed in the water near the mouth of the Navarro River where it meets the Pacific Ocean, the CHP said.

The driver, identified by the Coroner's Office as Elegba Earl, 32, of Los Angeles, also was killed in the crash. The third person in the car, whom the CHP identified as Eric Frierson, 39, of Los Angeles, survived by climbing through the sun roof. He was hospitalized with moderate injuries at Mendocino Coast Hospital, according to officer Robert Simas of the CHP office in Ukiah.

Ranft was a co-writer on 1995's "Toy Story," for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and 1998's "A Bug's Life." Before Pixar, he was a leading member of the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was a writer on 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" and 1994's "The Lion King."

"Joe was an important and beloved member of the Pixar family, and his loss is of great sorrow to all of us and to the animation industry as a whole," the Emeryville, Calif.-based company said Wednesday. In addition to his work as a writer, Ranft performed the voices for numerous characters in Pixar features.

Director Henry Selick, Ranft's friend and longtime collaborator, called him "the story giant of our generation."

Before joining Pixar, Ranft worked with Selick as a storyboard supervisor on 1993's "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Selick met Ranft at Disney in the early 1980s, and his first impression of Ranft was that he was "a huge guy" who was well over 6 feet tall.

"His drawing at the time was really crude, but he was the sweetest, funniest guy," Selick said. "I've never seen anyone try to improve himself as much as Joe did over the years."

He also was highly versatile, Selick recalled.

"He could do these beautiful sweet gags for a family film and then do these weird, depraved cartoons of anyone who needed to be skewered," Selick said. "We'd do hundreds of drawings, and Joe was always the guy who was able to go back in and say, 'This is about the process; let's try it again.' "

Ranft's voice-over work for Pixar included such characters as Heimlich in "A Bug's Life" and Wheezy the Penguin in "Toy Story 2."

Born in Pasadena in 1960, Ranft was raised in Whittier, Calif., where as a child he developed a fondness for performing magic tricks. He was a classmate of Pixar's John Lasseter at the California Institute of the Arts in the 1970s.

After two years at CalArts, Ranft joined Disney in 1980. In 1992, he reunited with Lasseter at Pixar, where his early work included pitching and storyboarding the first sequence for "Toy Story," the Green Army Men sketch.

"Every film Joe's name was on was successful artistically and financially," Selick said. "Sometimes he contributed small details, sometimes the whole thing. He was a story giant of our generation."

[squints]

That's fascinating

[Ravi]

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6282604.html

Pixar back in talks with Disney
FROM VARIETY: Jobs says deal could be cemented by end of year
By Ben Fritz 11/9/2005

NOV. 9 | In a third-quarter earnings call, Pixar CEO Steve Jobs said Pixar is "in deep discussions" with Disney about renewing a deal, and said he hopes the two companies will stay together.

"If we go with Disney, then we'll be done by the end of the year, but if we don't, it might be later," Jobs said. "The timing is not our first choice, but it's worth investing an extra few months to determine whether we continue with Disney or not. It would be our first choice to continue with them."

Jobs reiterated he is getting along with Disney's new chief executive Bob Iger, a shift from a contentious relationship with Michael Eisner that contributed to tension a year ago, when a renewal looked unlikely.

In the quarter ended Sept. 30, Pixar reported a profit of $27.4 million on revenue of $45.8 million, up 22% and 3%, respectively, from a year ago.

Performance was driven largely by sales of its library titles, including the re-release of Toy Story on DVD and particularly strong interest for Finding Nemo on various platforms, as well as consumer products.

The Incredibles, the studio's most recent release, contributed relatively little as Pixar experienced higher-than-expected home video returns last spring after the movie hit DVD in March.

A Toy Story 2 special edition DVD will be released domestically Dec. 26, with the company hoping to benefit from post-Christmas sales and gift card shopping.

[MacGuffin]

Disney Said in Talks to Purchase Pixar

The Walt Disney Co. is in serious talks to buy Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the maker of the hit movies "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo" among others, following months of exploring how to continue their profitable film distribution partnership, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the plan, the Journal said Disney would pay a nominal premium to Pixar's current market value of $6.7 billion under the deal being discussed in a stock transaction that would make Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs the largest individual shareholder in Disney.

The Journal said the outcome of the talks isn't certain, and that other options are possible.

Telephone messages left Thursday morning for Disney spokeswoman Michelle Bergman in Burbank, Calif., and Pixar's Michele Clarke in New York were not immediately returned.

Pixar shares rose $2.10, or 3.7 percent, to $59.36 in midday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market while Disney shares gained 85 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $26.05 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Jobs is the largest shareholder in Pixar, with more than 60 million shares, or 50.6 percent, according to Pixar's filings with securities regulators last year. At its current share price, his stake is worth about $3.44 billion.

Jobs is already a force in the media business as he also heads Apple Computer Inc., which reported Wednesday that first-quarter income nearly doubled on record revenue and big demand for its iPod music players.

Disney and Pixar have been partners for more than 12 years, allowing Disney to distribute and co-finance popular and profitable Pixar movies that have also included "The Incredibles." But Jobs said two years ago, amid squabbles with then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, that he would end that relationship when it expires later this year and seek a new distribution partner.

Disney's current CEO Robert Iger, who took over last October, has reportedly made continuing the companies' relationship a priority. Iger last fall allowed Disney TV shows like "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" to be made available in a format that could be downloaded and played on iPods.

There has been weeks of speculation that Disney might try to take a stake in Pixar or buy it outright.

The Journal said the companies are still haggling over a price, and any major moves in Pixar's stock price could disrupt negotiations. The newspaper said the two sides could decide on a less-ambitious plan, including an agreement for Disney to distribute movies that Pixar finances and makes.

[modage]

i dont want disney meddling in pixar's creative.  let them market and let that be all.

[Kal]

the thing is that if pixar is part of disney, and they will buy this with stocks... steve jobs will become the most powerful person inside disney... and the biggest shareholder... which means he will control disney and then i dont see how anybody will stop apple!

its kinda interesting...

[Jeremy Blackman]

Interesting point, but it still seems unavoidable that this would damage Pixar in some irreparable way.

[Pwaybloe]

the thing is that if pixar is part of disney, and they will buy this with stocks... steve jobs will become the most powerful person inside disney... and the biggest shareholder... which means he will control disney and then i dont see how anybody will stop apple!

its kinda interesting...

That doesn't necessarily mean anything.  Being the major stockholder doesn't mean that he will run the company.  Disney already has an appointed CEO that answers to the board. 

[Ravi]

Interesting point, but it still seems unavoidable that this would damage Pixar in some irreparable way.

Disney would be idiotic to tamper with Pixar.  They've produced their biggest hits in the 90s.

[modage]

yes, but all it would take is 1 or 2 films to underperform before stockholders and bosses start trying to weasel in and pinpoint what could be wrong.

[Ravi]

I didn't say that Disney wouldn't mess with them, just that they'd be stupid to do so.  Never underestimate these people to do something dumb.

"You need more parodies and references, you know, like the PDI guys do."

[Kal]

the thing is that if pixar is part of disney, and they will buy this with stocks... steve jobs will become the most powerful person inside disney... and the biggest shareholder... which means he will control disney and then i dont see how anybody will stop apple!

its kinda interesting...

That doesn't necessarily mean anything.  Being the major stockholder doesn't mean that he will run the company.  Disney already has an appointed CEO that answers to the board. 

CEO or no CEO... Steve Jobs is today one of the most powerfull men in Hollywood... and if he owns a big stock and control in Disney he will be even more powerfull. The CEO is the person appointed by the Board to run the company and speak their mind... the Board is controlled by the shareholders... if there is a major shareholder that controls majority of the Board, that person also controls the CEO and the company. Trust me, if this happens Jobs is going to be the biggest fish in the business. And with the success of iTunes selling Video and the new Macs, it will be huge.

[Reinhold]

what's the problem with that?

i like steve jobs. i think his input will be good for disney. apple= good for independent filmmakers. maybe disney will be come more independent friendly too.