Since we've been covering mergers and acquisitions through the text in Chapter 7, I thought I'd mention Disney's acquisition of Pixar. I was rather suprised to see that this acquisition occurred, based on the documented falling out between Disney and Pixar. With Pixar flourishing and Disney floundering in the production of animated movies over the past couple years, this move appears to be one to make up for Disney's recent decline of innovation.

Another angle to take when looking at this merger is that Steve Jobs, who is also the CEO of Apple, will be appointed to Disney's board of directors. Several weeks back, I recall reading an article that Apple made a deal with Disney that would allow Apple to distribute television shows of ABC through its IPod service. This acquisition further strengthens this partnership between the two organizations and possibly opens the doors for even more content release through this medium. However, it makes me wonder whether this move was self-serving of Steve Jobs moreso than for the benefit of Pixar. With the contract between Pixar and Disney nearly up, which would have been completed with the release of Cars early this year, would Pixar been better off to go off on its own or to even work with other studios such as Warner Brothers or Twentieth Century Fox? I think its something to think about.