Pixar Merger Essay

The companies worked towards a culture that was more in line with team learning. Pixar had previously operated under the premise where people were given the full chance to be creative and use their ideas in order to learn from their success or failures. Disney allowed for creativity however was more micromanaged. This new cultural shift for Disney to let go of some of the control was a hard thing to do for them. Disney had initially lost some of the people with this shift in their culture mainly with those who failed to adapt to this new free-spirited environment. With Disney’s regimented culture they followed more of a top down approach within their work environment. This approach initially during the merger hindered the learning approach that Disney Pixar was trying to create. Some employees at Pixar initially had issues with the cultural clash of a free-spirited environment and the rigid environment Disney operated with causing problems with retaining the talent at Pixar. Despite these cultural clashes and differences Disney Pixar was able to pull their new-shared vision in a direction that allowed for cross-organizational collaboration and for a new culture that worked for both companies.

Managing conflict for organizations is very important in maintaining business relationships, especially ones that are profitable like that of Disney-Pixar. At the helm of the Walt Disney Company during the begging and end of these feuds was Michael Eisner and Bob Iger. Even though Michael Eisner is the one responsible for the conflict with Disney and Pixar, he should be equally responsible for trying to fix the damaged relationship. When trying to manage conflict there are several approaches that can be taken to resolve the conflict at hand: dominating, accommodating, problem solving, avoiding and compromising.

For the corporation that has acquired another company, merged with another company, or been acquired by another company, evaluate the strategy that led to the merger or acquisition to determine whether or not this merger or acquisition was a wise choice. Justify your opinion.

I think that it’s the best decision in this situatuion: let Pixar do their job with the help of the Disney distribution channels. But that’s just the theory. On practice, it’s gonna be much harder to combine different corporate cultures, because both Disney and Pixar used to work with their usual style.

Introduction: The Walt Disney Company is on the threshold of a new era. Michael Eisner has stepped down from his position as CEO and turned over the reigns to Robert Iger. A lot of turmoil has been brewing through the company over the last four years; many people are hoping that this change in leadership will put Disney back on the road to success. Issues began around mid-2002; when declining earnings, fleeing shareholders, and

The second factor is the economies of scale. The success of the acquisition regarding the economies of scale is questionable as the companies did not seem to work together (Zahed, 2012). Disney started developing their own computer animations, while Pixar got a lot of revenue from their six animated motion pictures. Pixar has the technology plus the creativity, and Disney has good stories plus the

Pixar is a company that has ties to other major corporations in our American culture. Pixar Animation Studios started as a part of the Lucas film computer group, which is owned by George Lucas the creator of Star Wars. However, after receiving funding from Steve Jobs the division became its own corporation in 1986. After that Disney purchased Pixar, which allowed Steve Jobs to become a shareholder in Disney also. With these changes due to the ownership of the corporation an analysis of managerial economics is overdue. What follows is an evaluate how Pixar attains balance between culture, rewards, and boundaries, what is Pixar’s organizational structure and why they have the structure they have, how Pixar’s leadership helps to create an ethical organization, how Pixar’s innovation helps the organization to accomplish its goals, how emotional intelligence helps the leadership guide the company, and how Pixar has overcome barriers to change. Pixar’s history has presented the firm with challenges and the firm has managed to overcome those challenges, anyone who plans to one day own their own business should look at the company and understand how the firm accomplished their tasks despite the presented challenges. The merger with Disney resulted in some problems for Pixar, but the merger was pursued for a reason. By merging, both firm have the potential to save time and money; there is also the potential to learn from each other.

Disney has expanded in both vertical and horizontal dimensions. They have 5 main business categories, notably media networks, studio entertainment, theme parks and resorts, consumer products, and internet and direct marketing.

In addition, by having access to the Pixar brand and its characters, they would help to supplement Disney’s existing characters across its different businesses like theme parks, merchandise, and television, which provide more sales opportunities. Despite the dilution of Disney’s earnings per share, it is for the short-term. The acquisition fills a crucial strategic gap for Disney and can create long-term value for its shareholders. As such, Pixar is a “near perfect strategic fit” for Disney and hence should be acquired by Disney to remain competitive.

Founded in 1934, The Walt Disney Animation studio is the oldest surviving animation studio in the world. The studio is documented with creating new techniques for the day, which are now considered standard. Disney produces the most animated motion picture films. Another major animation studio based out of California is Pixar Animation Studios. However, Disney agreed to purchase Pixar in early 2006, for 7.4 billion dollars. Pixar has produced films that have won seven academy awards including Toy Story, Cars, and Finding Nemo.

In 1974, Ed Catmull was hired to manage the Computer Graphic Lab (CGL) at the New York Institute of Technology. The CGL also hired a few other computer scientists who shared ambitions about creating the world’s first computer animated film. In 1979, Ed Catmull and his team moved to the computer division at Lucasfilm. In 1986, Steve Jobs bought the computer division from Lucasfilm, paid $5million to George Lucas for technology rights and founded an independent company, Pixar. Steve Jobs joined the company’s board of directors as chairman and Ed Catmull became the president of the company. In 1991, Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer animated feature films. Pixar produced Toy

Pixar Animation Studios was founded in 1979, initially specializing in producing state of the art computer hardware (Carlson, 2003). In 1990, due to poor product sales the company diversified from its core business and began producing computer animated commercials for outside companies. Success came for Pixar after the production of its first computer animated film ‘Toy story’ in 1995 (Hutton and Baute, 2007). Since then, Pixar has made many innovative animated feature films, with well known ones including - A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille and WALL-E, six of which are in the top grossing animated

Founded on February 3, 1986, Pixar was best known for its animated films created with Photo Realistic Rendermen. It initially began as a graphics group under Lucasfilm’s Computer Division. However, it was later purchased by Steve Jobs for $10 million dollars and renamed to Pixar. It continued to grow its success with the release of many movies, including their Toy Story series, one of their highest

Established in 1923, Disney Studios released the first ever full-length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. By 2015, Disney Studios employed about “6,500 employees, and spent $2 billion producing films annually”. Alan Horn, Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, oversees five studios, that together made up Disney Studios. The Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures ‘Disney Live Action’ and Walt Disney Animation Studios ‘Disney Animation’ are directly from Walt Disney’s original studio. The three others were acquisitions made during Bob Iger’s time as chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company. The first was Disney's competitor animation studio, Pixar, which was purchased for $7.4 billion in 2006; second, Marvel Entertainment, which had its roots in comic books, for $4 billion in 2009; and finally the legendary filmmaker George Lucas’ Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in 2012. During this time, Disney Studios began pursuing a “tentpole” strategy, which entails investing in higher budget films that would hopefully produce a larger profit by pulling in a large portion of the market. The larger profit would also help compensate for losses that may occur in smaller budgeted films. As it stands, Disney studios currently produces 10-12 films annually with approximately eight of them with production budgets in excess of $150 million. The current breakdown of tentpole films expected annually is as follows: two from Marvel, one from Lucasfilm, one from Pixar,

The Walt Disney Company is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. Disney is able to create sustainable profits due to its heterogeneity, inimitability, co-specialization and immense foresight. During the late twentieth century, Michael Eisner founded and gave a rebirth to Walt Disney Company. Eisner revitalize TV and movies, Themes Park and new businesses. Eisner's takeover for fifteen years had climbed the revenues and net earnings of the company. It also successfully uses synergy to create value across its many business units. After its founder Walter Disney's death, the company started to lose its ground and performance declined. Michael Eisner became CEO