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Disney Reported In Talks To Buy Pixar Animation Studios
Dow Jones News Service (excerpt) ^ | January 19, 2006

Posted on 01/19/2006 2:38:51 AM PST by HAL9000

Excerpt -

LONDON (Dow Jones) -- Walt Disney Co. is reported to be in serious talks to buy Pixar Animation Studios for slightly more than the $6.7 billion that Pixar already is worth.

The deal between Walt Disney Co.(DIS)and Pixar Animation Studios(PIXR)would leave Pixar CEO Steve Jobs as Disney's largest individual stockholder, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources.

Jobs also is head of Apple Computer(AAPL).

The report said Disney is negotiating to pay a "nominal" premium to Pixar's current $6.7 billion market capitalization.

Both sides accept that Pixar's stock price has a takeover premium built in after weeks of speculation that Disney might try to take a stake in the company, or buy it outright, the report said.

[snip]


(Excerpt) Read more at nasdaq.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: disney; iger; pixar; robertiger; stevejobs; waltdisney

1 posted on 01/19/2006 2:38:57 AM PST by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000
Good synergy, but $6.7 billion, that seems overvalued to me. What has Pixar done lately to command such value?
2 posted on 01/19/2006 2:41:39 AM PST by Pro-Bush (We protect Korea's border better than our own!)
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To: Pro-Bush

Last time i had heard, Pixar and Disney weren't getting along too well business wise. Maybe this is Disney's way to get what they want by buying the whole dang company and start pulling the legs and arms off the management that gave Disney problems. payback? hehehe. I don't know to be honest, i'm just speculating.
I haven't seen anything since the last toystory II, i'm not sure if Pixar has put anything worth buying out there, does anyone know?


3 posted on 01/19/2006 3:03:04 AM PST by 1FASTGLOCK45 (FreeRepublic: More fun than watching Dem'Rats drown like Turkeys in the rain! ! !)
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To: Pro-Bush
Unbroken string of successes of family oriented films -
The Incredibles
Finding Nemo
Toy Story II
Monsters, Inc
Bug's Life
Toy Story

Still it is overvalued especially since what guarantee does Disney have that the creative team will remain in place after the purchase. Disney has a history of overpaying for properties (anybody watch ABC Family). Read DisneyWars for a good look inside Disney.
4 posted on 01/19/2006 3:04:33 AM PST by exhaustguy
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To: All

Bill Who?...


5 posted on 01/19/2006 4:12:47 AM PST by TruthBeforeAll
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To: 1FASTGLOCK45
Maybe this is Disney's way to get what they want by buying the whole dang company and start pulling the legs and arms off the management that gave Disney problems.
Paying $6.7 billion for Pixar - in the process making Pixar's Steve Jobs your largest single shareholder - is a funny way to "pull the legs and arms off the management that gave Disney problems" - when Jobs is the one who broke off negotiations with Disney's Eisner.

It's the other way around - Eisner is gone because, at least in part, of his problem with Jobs. Eisner's successor is making very nice with Jobs.


6 posted on 01/19/2006 7:01:11 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: TruthBeforeAll
Bill Who?...
It's not to that point yet, but Jobs sure is on a roll with Pixar and Apple.

7 posted on 01/19/2006 7:08:52 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: HAL9000

Pixar has had nothing but solid successes. Its animation is clever, fresh and timeless. Both the art and the scripts have been outstanding. "The Incredibles" is not only one of the best animated films ever made, it is also one of the best films ever made.

Disney animation has had a long string of flops. Its animation has been short in length, poorly animated and depends on Rossanne Barr type humor. I think "Aladin" may have been the last enjoyable Disney animation, which was released about a decade ago.

Disney needs Pixar because they've fired most of their animation staff. With Jobs as the biggest stockholder, maybe he can set Disney on the right course.


8 posted on 01/19/2006 7:19:43 AM PST by kidd
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Thank you for straightening me out :)


9 posted on 01/20/2006 3:42:01 AM PST by 1FASTGLOCK45 (FreeRepublic: More fun than watching Dem'Rats drown like Turkeys in the rain! ! !)
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To: HAL9000

If Disney buys it, they'll ruin it.


10 posted on 01/20/2006 3:58:04 AM PST by BlessedBeGod (Benedict XVI = Terminator IV)
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To: HAL9000
It sounds like Disney wants to get into the Family Entertainment business.

They aren't doing that well with the "Fudge-Packing" films.

11 posted on 01/20/2006 4:19:01 AM PST by Redleg Duke (Kennedy and Kerry, the two Commissars of the Peoples' Republic of Massachusetts!)
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To: Pro-Bush
what has Pixar done lately to command such value?

First of all,there's the string of successes that others on this thread have mentioned. But what pixar would really be to Disney would be fresh blood. I have read biographies of Walt Disney, and also seen lots of material on the pixar studios. What impresses Me is that the pixar studios today is the a kind of crazy, creative, synergistic and most of all FUN kind of place to work. Staff zip around on skateboards, bikes and scooters. People wear loud clothes and there are all kinds of corporate get togethers, halloween parties, spontaneous things happening all the time.One animators office is only accessible through a 3 Ft. tall service tunnel which is hidden in another animators office. They drive newbies crazy by telling them to deliver something to this guys office. It is very reminiscent of the kind of crazy, hectic loopy workplace that was Disneys Hyperion studios in the '30s and '40s. In his time Walt revolutionized the animated film industry with a hardworking , but fun and spirited studio. Not suprisingly, Jobs and pixar is doing much the same thing in our era. Jobs Et. al. will get the distribution, marketing savvy and Cache' of the Disney name. Disney will get some of the complacency shaken out of them by the new upstarts at pixar(and might just be reminded of Walts vision for the company)

Dos centavos,

CC

12 posted on 01/20/2006 5:14:08 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (Billy Tauzin about Louisiana: "half the state is under water, the other half is under indictment")
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To: Celtic Conservative

the a = the


13 posted on 01/20/2006 5:15:13 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (Billy Tauzin about Louisiana: "half the state is under water, the other half is under indictment")
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To: BlessedBeGod
If Eisner was still calling the shots, I would agree. Iger is his own man, and Roy Disney Jr. Has his ear. Let's Just see what happens

CC

14 posted on 01/20/2006 5:17:55 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (Billy Tauzin about Louisiana: "half the state is under water, the other half is under indictment")
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