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Disney in talks to acquire Pixar - WSJ
Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:29 AM ET

NEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co. is in serious talks about an acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The newspaper report said terms under discussion would have Disney pay a small premium to Pixar's current stock market value of $6.7 billion. The deal would be a stock transaction and make Pixar Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs the biggest individual shareholder in Disney, the newspaper reported.

The talks are at a sensitive stage and other options are possible, including an agreement for Disney to distribute Pixar movies, the report said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The companies have been partners since Pixar began making feature films with "Toy Story". Currently Pixar and Disney split costs, and Disney effectively has sequel rights to Pixar films.

Representatives for Disney and Pixar could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Boy I hope that goes through

Sounds like some big changes are in the works. I don't really know how I feel about jobs getting a majority of Disney. It could be go and bad. It would be smart of Disney to acquire Pixar and obtain the distribution rights, more money to put in the parks maybe . O well lets see how this pans out.

Thanks for the info addlema

I'm all for Disney buying them out but I hope Pixar still has those great story telling ability after it's part of Disney

I still think a symbiotic distribution/rights deal is better than a buyout.

Pixar will make a flop some day. It will happen. How would it look if it happened to be the first film created fully under the Disney umbrella? How would shareholders like a flop mere months-to-a-year after a multibillion dollar acquisition? I'm not saying it would be Fox Family Channel redux, and Disney needs exclusive distrib/theme park rights to Pixar films, but an acquisition has a ton of risk attached to it...

Quite Interesting...
Two seperate opinions about this:

First, this just leads me to believe that Disney is desperate and has no creative imagination anymore. Their own projects aren't super successful. Now they have to buy back other people who did.

Second, As far as Steve Jobs being a part of Disney, this could be great. Those guys at Apple know how to make great products. My only concern is price. If it's anything like how much macs and I-pods go for look for Tickets to the parks to cost $100. Of course, Disney doesn't listen to share holders anyways, so don't worry about this happening.

Apples are quite a bit cheaper now that they are running Intel Chips... It actually surprised me quite a bit...

I dont think pricing would change that much.. What apple would bring (or Steve Jobs) more then anything is a new creative force.

I would really like to see a Disney/Pixar merger.. I agree with Sub... Disney's creative talent is drained currently..

It is getting better now that Eisner is almost gone and Rober Iger is helming the great Disney ship. I really have high hopes for Disney under Iger. He is a very smart guy.

I want to see Disney concentrate on 2d animation and there Pixar "Division" do the computer driven stuff..

Anywho's. In short. This merger if happened would be the best thing ever IMHO.

Sounds interesting to me. I would love to see Disney and Pixar together in a more permanent state. addlema is right, it would be so nice if Disney stuck with the old fashioned animation and perhaps had a "Pixar Division". My favorite Disney movies are not the computer animated ones (not including Pixar of course). Stick to the tried and true art I say. Anyhow, it will be fascinating to see what happens. Could be fabulous news for Disney!

I do agree that Apple may bring in more creativity. Disney really does need to concentrate on the 2-d stuff none of there 2-d stuff has compared in sales to the pixar stuff.

I would like to point out that creativity and the willingness to try new and untested things are creaping back into the Disney mind set.. Look at ABC's Lost.. Probably the most creative and mind bending show in years (At least on regular networks).

DCA does not need another PixarLand.

Looks like the deal has been approved by Pixar's board and is going forward.

here is a story I found about it.

Steve Jobs will be the single largest shareholder of Disney, and will make about 3.5 BILLION dollars on the deal. Can you imagine making 3.5 billion in a DAY? What would you do to Celebrate? If I were Jobs, I'd go to Disneyland.

Doesnt Gates make more then that EVERY Day? not sure what his daily income is but its way up there...

I think as I state before this will be good for Disney and Pixar! Yippee!

Can you imagine the new Disney Electronics that could result from a closer connection with Apple? Snow White could have a hay day with that one...

This is GREAT news for Disney

Does anybody know what percent of Disney Stock Steve Jobs has now?

It would be cool to see some of his inspirational ideas. I hope the prices don't escalate to one hundred dollars per ticket. (This is a joke)