The Wall Street Journal today cited anonymous sources in reporting that The Walt Disney Co. is in serious talks to acquire Pixar Animation Studios. The stock transaction, would reportedly have Disney pay a small premium to Pixar’s stock market value of $6.7 billion, making Pixar CEO Steve Jobs Disney’s biggest individual shareholder.
Disney and Pixar have been negotiating a continuation of their lucrative partnership since Bob Iger took the Mouse House reins from Michael Esiner, with whom Jobs was often at odds. A reconciliation appears imminent, but with nothing agreed upon at this time, there are a number of ways the deal could go. Jobs has been working to secure a distribution deal similar to the one George Lucas has with 20th Century Fox, wherein LucasFilm pays a distribution fee to the studio and keeps all profits.
Disney is set to release Pixar’s Cars, the last film to be produced under their current contract, on June 9, 2006. Regardless of what happens at the negotiation table, Disney owns the rights to movies produced by Pixar and plans to make Toy Story 3 and sequels to other hits to roll off the Pixar assembly line. Fans just hope the Emmery, Calif. digital toon studio is along for the ride.
Leave a Reply