Disney to acquire Pixar for US$7.4 billion

[Bob Crabtree]

The massively strong rumours flying around were true - Disney is to acquire the computer-animation film maker Pixar but for a figure (admittedly only a paper figure) of US$7.4 billion. That's far higher than analysis were predicting.

And if you thought that Steve Jobs was pretty well off before, you can imagine he's now going to be extremely pretty well off!



He was the majority shareholder in Pixar and stands to gain about US$3.7 billion from the deal - though that's all in Disney shares, rather than cash in hand.

Disney to aquire Pixar - long-time creative partners form new worldwide leader in quality family entertainment

Ed Catmull named President of the combined Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and John Lasseter named Chief Creative Officer; Steve Jobs to join Disney's board of directors - Disney increases stock repurchase authorization

Burbank, CA and Emeryville, CA (January 24, 2006) – Furthering its strategy of delivering outstanding creative content, Robert A. 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).*
* Based on Disney's closing share price of $25.52 as of 1/23/06 [Jan 23, 2006].

Check out the press release.

[Nemeliza]

I must admit that the two companies work very well together.

[Lord Kordir]

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed a lot of takeovers recently? It's slightly worrying

[just_laze]

3.7bn is probably more than Apple is worth, oh no wait, they invented the iPod.

[hitman67]

I always thought Pixar and Sony were the same company...

[TiG]

Its a very good business move too, pixar are doing great, they pick up 1.1$billion in cash which is only diluted against the shares. They get jobs on the disney board and with his current run of success allows him to really look to push digital content of the disney empire in i-video/dvd etc via the online marketplace.

TiG