DISNEY - DISNEY: THE PIXAR ERA

Disney CEO Robert Iger said Tuesday that his decision to buy Pixar Animation for $7.4 billion was based on his desire to reinvigorate "the heart and soul of the company." In an interview with Bloomberg News, Iger said, "For the company to be healthy, I truly felt that animation had to be healthy." (In a separate interview with the New York Times, Iger said, "I want to return Disney to greatness in this area ... and this was the way to do it fastest.") He said that Pixar President Ed Catmull and Pixar cofounder and creative chief John Lasseter will manage Disney animation -- "everything from how pictures are chosen, how they are developed. It's everything." David Stainton will step down as head of Disney Feature Animation but remain with the company, Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said Tuesday. Analysts generally reacted enthusiastically to the deal. Tom Adams, head of Adams Media Research, told the Washington Post: "Disney built the company on animation, and its hand went cold just as Pixar's went hot. This is big, big stuff for Disney." But some analysts worried whether Disney's conservative, corporate culture and Pixar's free-wheeling, independent one can effectively be fused. As Marla Backer, an analyst at Research associates, told today's New York Daily News: "Disney is bureaucratic. People roller-blade down the halls of Pixar. ... I don't think Pixar needs Disney looking over its shoulders."

25/01/2006