Disney buys Pixar

Today was quite a busy day at work as you can imagine from all the news and press!! Pixar was all over the news this evening and there were tons of reporters outside of the Pixar campus all day today. Big big big big news. It was really exciting to be in the midst of all of it, and from the news reports it sounded like something was going to happen today. Of course as you all know from the reports, Disney has bought Pixar Animation Studios.

I am sure that I cannot discuss more details than are already in print, so I will outline a few of the details that are already available to the public in the following articles, and put some links here for you all to check out the deal in more detail if you'd like to!

A few points about the deal:

• Disney announced today that they are purchasing Pixar Animation Studios, in a deal worth $7.4 Billion US dollars.
• Steve Jobs, C.E.O. of Pixar and Apple now becomes a major shareholder of Disney stock and has a seat on Disney's board of directors.
  
• John Lasseter, creative genius and director at Pixar is now the Chief Creative Officer at Disney Feature Animation and at Pixar's studio, and will also oversee the development of new attractions for the Disney Theme Parks.
• Dr. Ed Catmull, President of Pixar now becomes the President of the combined Disney and Pixar studios, i.e. Disney Feature Animation and Pixar Animation Studios.
• The two companies will remain separate, with Pixar keeping its brand name and headquarters in Emeryville, near San Francisco. Maintaining Pixar'’s unique creative character was a priority in the talks, executives said. (source: MSNBC)
  

And a few quotes from Bob Iger (C.E.O. of Disney) and Steve Jobs (C.E.O. of Pixar and Apple).

• "With this transaction, we welcome and embrace Pixar's unique culture, which for two decades, has fostered some of the most innovative and successful films in history," Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger said in a statement. (source: sfgate.com)
• "Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders," Steve Jobs said in a statement. "Now, everyone can focus on what is most important, creating innovative stories, characters and films that delight millions of people around the world." (source: sfgate.com)
• "“Most of the time that Bob and I have spent talking about this hasn'’t been about economics, it'’s been about preserving the Pixar culture because we all know that that's the thing that is going to determine the success here in the long run," Jobs said on a conference call with analysts. (source: MSNBC)
  

Here are some links to articles about the deal.

• CNN - "Disney buys Pixar"
  
• CBC News - "Disney to buy Pixar Animation for $7.4 billion US"
  
• MSNBC - "Disney buying Pixar for $7.4 billion"
  
• MSNBC - "Disney-Pixar: It's a wrap"
• SFGate - "Disney buying Pixar for $7.4 billion"
• USA Today - "Jobs has a knack for getting his way"
• LA Times - "Fabled Film Company May Get a Reanimator"

It was a very exciting day to be here and I feel like I was just part of a small slice of history. What a great time to be in the Computer industry. :)