Disney/Pixar 2.0
Category: Economy & Business...
Posted Monday, January 23, 2006 at 10:07 AM [GMT-6]

Today's Wall Street Journal discusses the potential conflicts of interest if Steve Jobs lands on the Disney board of directors if the Disney acquisition of Pixar becomes a reality. As Apple becomes increasingly active as a provider/facilitator of entertainment content, the relationship of that company and Disney as competitors/collaborators/supply-chain-participants starts to get muddled.

The article states that most observers think that Jobs could handle the dual roles without problem, but that may not be within his control, depending on how high the wall is built to ensure arms-length objectivity. Jobs has apparently been able to limit his involvement at Pixar to true high-level management, while he continues to be an incredibly hands-on, detailed manager at Apple. There's no reason to think he couldn't do the same at Disney...except that he might find that he's not working with the same level of managerial and creative talent at Disney that he's got at Pixar, nor will the creative constraints be as loose.

One interesting footnote to this story is the revelation that Jobs's investment in Pixar is now worth $3.5 billion. He paid $10 million for Pixar in 1986.

Finally, in the wake of my rather tacky post last week about the potential acquisition of Pixar by Disney, I'm gratified to see that the WSJ's "Question of the Day" is "Which company stands to benefit more in a Disney-Pixar deal?" and, more to the point, 74% of the respondents think the deal will benefit Disney more than Pixar. I have no idea what planet the other 24% are logging in from.

Technorati tags: Disney | Pixar | Steve Jobs