| This contest is fueled by the following news: |
| | SBC Communications, Inc., the huge phone company, is going to acquire AT&T Corp. The purchase will be made for approximately $16 billion in stock and cash. The Wall Street Journal reported the sale. Sources that are close to both of the companies reported that SBC's board of directors approved the sale on Sunday and the board of AT&T was still meeting to discuss the proposed deal. AT&T actually would not officially comment on the sale.
Pixar and Disney Example:
In 1986, Steve Jobs acquired The Graphics Group (renamed later as Pixar) from Lucasfilm, the computer graphics subdivision, for 10 million dollars, 5 million of which were provided to the company as capital.
The new company, which was previously situated in San Rafael, then moved to Emeryville (California), was originally founded as the developer of high-quality graphics hardware. After several years of unprofitable sales of the Pixar Image Computer, it signed a contract with Disney for making a series of computer animated films, which Disney should co-finance and distribute.
The first animated film, produced in partnership in 1995 - "Toy Story" - brought fame and the recognition of critics to the studio. In the subsequent 15 years, the company, under the leadership of the creative director John Lassater, produced box office hits: "A Bug's Life" (1998), "Toy Story 2" (1999), "Monsters, Inc" (2001), "Finding Nemo" (2003), "The Incredibles" (2004), "Cars" (2006), Ratatouille" (2007), "WALL-E" (2008), "UP (2009) & "Toy Story: The Video Game" (2010). "Finding Nemo", "Ratatouille", "WALL-E", "UP" and "Toy Story: The Video Game" have received "Oscar" awards in the category "Best animated Feature".
In 2003 and 2004, when the agreement of Pixar with Disney was terminated, Jobs and Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, tried to work out a new partnership but the attempt was unfruitful. In the beginning of 2004, Jobs stated that, Pixar shall identify a new partner for distributing its films on the termination of the contract with Disney.
In October 2005, Eisner was replaced by Bob Iger and he quickly settled the relationship with Jobs and Pixar. On January 24, 2006, Jobs and Iger declared that Disney agreed to acquire Pixar for 7.4 million dollars. As soon as the deal was inked, Jobs became the largest private shareholder of The Walt Disney Company with approximately 7% shares of the company. Jobs became a member of the board of directors of the company after the completion of the merging formalities. |
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