The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?

Disney’s long-run success is mainly due to creating value through diversification. Their corporate strategies (primarily under CEO Eisner) include three dimensions: horizontal and geographic expansion as well as vertical integration. Disney is a prime example of how to achieve long-run success through the choices of business, the choice of how many activities to undertake, the choice of how many businesses to be in, the choice of how to manage a portfolio of businesses and the choice of how to create synergies between those businesses (3, p.191-221). All these choices and decisions are

Disney used the character of Mickey Mouse and others to create movies that customers enjoyed like “Beauty and the Beast” while Pixar was producing made up animated characters to create films like “Cars” and “Wall-E”. Disney was creating animated movies but struggling to generate the amount of money Pixar was making on producing only one movie a year. Disney wanted to grow in creating more animated movies and decided to buy out Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 million dollars. (Barnes, 2008) According to Disney’s CEO Robert

One of these media giants is the Walt Disney Company (Disney). Its dramatic growth from a small company to become an oligopolist in the media industry offers an interesting

Buying energetic, young and creative Pixar, Disney intends to regain lost ground. But, they must do that in a smart way, to satisfy the needs of the Pixar owners, shareholders and employees. Back to the ownership test, the Disney ownership of Pixar will produce a greater competitive advantage for them. They will lose a powerful competitor, and will produce something

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

Disney’s acquisition of Pixar had both benefits and implications for both parties involved. By acquiring Pixar, Disney was given access to Pixar’s proprietary technology, which was an important factor, as well as access to new characters. These characters provided a new source of income for Disney, not just for movies, but also to use in theme parks, merchandise stores, etc., meaning new characters would supply immense revenue streams for Disney in several forms. Disney also gained strengthened market power, as acquiring one of their rivals would give them a competitive advantage and would simultaneously make them more powerful in the market. Additionally, Disney was never very successful with their animated movies, and acquiring Pixar would

5. Does Disney’s portfolio exhibit good strategic fit? What value chain match-ups do you see? What opportunities for skills transfer, cost sharing, or brand sharing do you see? Please be specific and explain why.

The current situation that Disney faces is very unique. Considering its relationship with Pixar, Disney holds a powerful set of options to choose from. My recommendation is going with the full acquisition of Pixar. While it is recommended for Disney to acquire Pixar, the merger should be done in a way that ensures a positive, sustainable relationship that maintains diversity. Through the acquisition, Disney can exclusively hold onto the talent that Pixar cultivates. Pixar and Disney both bring a value of fan base and name recognition, which can be powerful when combined. Most importantly, Disney will have control of the revenue stream for both organizations, which will prevent any polarizing negotiations, as both will be under the same roof.

The case is related with a decision regarding The walt Disney Company’s relation with Pixar. Though, history defined their collaboration and success. Pixar’s CEO Mr. Steve Jobs has tried to negotiate the contract but with no success because The Walt Disney Company wants to stay with previous terms. This pushed Steve Jobs to find for partnership with others. This search is a big threat for The Walt Disney Company and it has to decide whether to acquire Pixar or not.

This study examines how leadership, teamwork, and organizational learning can contribute in making mergers and acquisitions work. Our intention is to identify critical factors and practices needed for merger success. Our research is part of an ongoing project, and builds on previous analysis of merger success/failure in such organizations as Standard Oil, Exxon Mobile, and Time Warner-AOL. In this paper, we turn our attention to the recent merger of Pixar and Disney. In our view, the Disney-Pixar case seems to be a good example of a successful merger in progress. This is demonstrated very clearly by recent box office successes such as Academy Award

Disney operates in very competitive industries such as media, tourism, parks and resorts, interactive entertainment and others. The competitive landscape changes quite drastically in the media industry, where news and TV go online and new competitors with new business models compete more successfully than incumbent media companies. Disney’s parks and resorts business segment also receives strong competition from local competitors who can offer better-adapted product. This results in growing competitive pressure for Walt Disney Company (Ovidijus Jurevicius).

This paper analyses the financial performance of the Walt Disney Company during FY’15 using profitability, liquidity, asset management, and debt management ratios, along with the DuPont system and a measure of Economic Value Added (EVA); and recommends purchase of the stock.

As a subsidiary company of Disney, one of the biggest companies in the entertainment industry, Pixar has strong financial support. Disney provides the production cost of the films, and it handles marketing and films promotions as well as distributions. Each of Pixar’s films made between $300 million and $1 billion at the box office, and two of them have exceeded $1 billion in income (Lynch, 2016).

The Walt Disney Company is the world’s largest media conglomerate. The company has the ability to be a successful conglomerate due to its Board of Directors, content theme of quality, as well as customer ordination in all its operating segments. The company has television holdings in ABC and ten other broadcasting stations, as well as cable networks including; ABC Family, A&E (37%), and ESPN (80%).

To conclude, Pixar has many opportunities that can be explored, in both the global and local markets. There is a lot of potential for