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DisneyDisney To Acquire Pixar - The Walt Disney Company.
In the past 16 years Pixar has produced 12 feature films -- all them box office smashes. The $602 million average gross of their films is unequaled in movie history. Six of them -- Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall*E, Up and Toy Story 3 -- won Oscars.
And when it comes to the merger of Walt Disney and Pixar it was a vertical merger because Pixar has specialization in animations and whereas Disney's main focus is on creating animated movies. Both companies were in the same field and were operating at different stages of production.
Edwin Earl "Ed" Catmull (born March 31, 1945) is an American computer scientist who is the co-founder of Pixar and was the President of Walt Disney Animation Studios. He has been honored for his contributions to 3D computer graphics, including the 2019 ACM Turing Award.
Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by RenderMan, the company's own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan Interface Specification image-rendering API. The studio's mascot is Luxo Jr., a desk lamp from the studio's 1986 short film of the same name.
Iger taking the position of Disney's CEO the conflicts between Pixar and Disney were resolved and on January 24, 2006, Disney announced that it had agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion. Disney offered 2.3 shares of its stock for each Pixar share. That's a 3.8% premium on Pixar's closing price of $57.57.
2006“It's hard to imagine a better salesman for something this ambitious.” Ultimately, Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006. Jobs became a member of Disney's board and the largest shareholder of the company.
vertical mergerThis was a vertical merger because Disney would benefit from owning the world's most innovative animation studio, while Pixar would benefit from Disney's strong financials and extensive distribution network. Since then, the Disney-Pixar merger has been considered one of the most successful mergers in recent history.
In 2006 Disney purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion, and it acquired Marvel Entertainment, a company best known as a comic book publisher, for $4 billion in 2009.
Ed Catmull is cofounder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Previously, Dr. Catmull was vice president of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm Ltd., where he managed development in the areas of computer graphics, video editing, video games and digital audio.
Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm before it was acquired by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion; the transaction made Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney.
Pixar started in 1986 as a hardware company called The Graphics Group, but the venture was unsuccessful, so they started creating CG animation for commercials. In 1995, the company released the first-ever feature-length computer-animated film Toy Story, which was a huge hit.
The acquisition brings to Disney the talented creative teams behind the tremendously popular original Pixar blockbusters, who will now be involved in the nurturing and future development of these properties, including potential feature animation sequels.
Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), announced today that Disney has agreed to acquire computer animation leader Pixar (NASDAQ: PIXR) in an all-stock transaction, expected to be completed by this summer. Under terms of the agreement, 2.3 Disney shares will be issued for each Pixar share. Based on Pixar ’s fully diluted shares outstanding, the transaction value is $7.4 billion ($6.3 billion net of Pixar ’s cash of just over $1 billion).*
With the addition of Jobs, 11 of Disney’s 14 directors will be independent. Both Disney and Pixar animation units will retain their current operations and locations. “Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders,” said Jobs.
In addition, Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter will be Chief Creative Officer of the animation studios, as well as Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he will provide his expertise in the design of new attractions for Disney theme parks around the world, reporting directly to Iger.
The Boards of Directors of Disney and Pixar have approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rod ino Antritrust Improvements Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, and other customary closing conditions. The agreement will require the approval of Pixar’s shareholders.