Yes, the headline is one from back when Apple bought NeXT for 400m dollars. It was said that, in reality, NeXT had bought Apple for -400m dollars because, since the NeXT acquisition the technologies that NeXT brought to Apple revolutionzied Apple's core buisness and have, in fact, returned Apple to be a global player in the computer market and have, by changing the culture of Apple, allowed Apple to take the leap to dominate the global music download market and the global portable player market. As I write this, my new 5G iPod is in my pocket — why did I buy a new 5G when my 4G was working fine? I can hardly say, video is cool, but not something I expect to use on a daily basis, the new screen is larger, easier to read, brighter and for the moment I will probably be able to sell the old iPod to moderately cover my losses.
There are many questions surrounding Dixar, and by looking at the deal, we can answer a few of them. They have announced that some Pixar employees are going to be moved into strategic positions within Disney. Note the word, some, It does not seem to me that this is an attempt to dissolve and absorb Pixar into Disney. I also do not think that anyone at Disney is going to start excersizing editorial control at Pixar. The Pixney deal is an all-stock deal, Pixar shareholders are getting 2.3 shares of Disney stock for every share of Pixar stock they own. This means that Steve Jobs will become the largest single stockholder in Disney. This is effectively handing control of the company to Steve saying, please take control of the company and fix it. I would not be suprised at all if this deal includes a seat on the board of Disney for Steve, or something larger, though he may be unwilling to neglect Apple by taking a large role within Disney, besides, he has spent the past 20 years making Pixar into a company infused with his drive and vision, he no doubt has many people who are working for him at Pixar who are both loyal to him and to the Pixar ideal, they will not be corrupted by the culture of Disney, indeed their job is to reform the culture of Disney. I will expect a few things to happen within disney, both quickly, and slowly. Firstly, they are going to completely axe the new CGI animation department at Disney. The movies they put out prove they don't have what it takes.
This is going to be a very exciting time for the people at Pixar and simultaniously a very scary time for the people at Disney. By making this purchase Disney has effectively said that their is something about Pixar that we want and not just their movies. There is a certian culture at Pixar that allows them to create such great movies. If Disney is very, very lucky they will be able to translate this corporate structure to the "old Disney" and remake the company in the image of Pixar. If successful, Disney will be able to leverage the corporate culture of Pixar to reimage itself and remove the parts of the company that haven't been able to produce anything useful in decades, while simultaniously Pixar is going to be able to leverage the fact that Disney is everywhere to expand it's empire.
I suppose we have to wait and see to determine the exact extent of where Dixay is going to take us, but that's the fun part.