Will Jobs head Disney?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Quote:

Disney board to meet; may pick Eisner successor



September 20, 2004 10:57:00 (ET)



LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) - Picking a successor for Chief Executive Michael Eisner is expected to be on the agenda Monday as the Walt Disney Co. board is scheduled to meet.



Eisner said earlier this month he would resign his post once his contract expires in 2006. That has left many in and around the entertainment company wondering what the executive suite will look like-and whether Eisner will actually leave Disney



...clip...



Gold and Disney want the board to make an independent selection. Among the names circulated as an outside candidate are Yahoo (YHOO, Trade) Chief Executive Terry Semel, Pixar (PIXR, Trade) and Apple (AAPL, Trade) head Steve Jobs, and News Corp. (NWS, Trade) President Peter Chernin.



(From: http://CBS.MarketWatch.com)



I know, I know the old Disney rumors are old hat. But they were usually about one buying the other. This one is more logical.



I would think that Jobs is perfect for this post. He could do to Pixar what he did for his NeXT company and OS, become CEO and have the "new" company buy "his" company. Disney would certainly win by having Pixar in-house, Pixar would have a universe of traditional Disney things to play with plus their own stuff. Plus the likely benefit to Apple if he can swoon the production onto more Macs. What better thing to bring about the Apple iVideoStore than having a partnership with Disney to kick it off? H.264 etc...something in it for everyone.



Pipe dream? Or tomorrow's headlines?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Hell, if steve has the chance, he would ban windows from all disney properties, the studios, parks, offices, ABC/ESPN/other cable outfits, and, of cource the back end of all web sites, accross the board, what a better way to show that a major coperaton can go M$-free...
  • Reply 2 of 9
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    And keep in mind this would leave him still controlling 2 companies, not 3. Disney will just be a tad bigger, and likely it'd reduce itself a bit (sadly, companies always get pared down when merging, no?).



    No doubt it'd be tough to do both but probably he'd have the staff to help him. Of course Disney is far larger than Pixar, what with the parks and massive amounts of content and infrastructure. But I imagine Eisner has a crack team to run around for him, delegating and doing the tough work.



    Still, I know I could only handle one or the other. Which one would he stay with if he could pick only one? I bet Disney actually. If he loves to make over beleaguered companies, that's the one. (Delta needs him after that!)
  • Reply 3 of 9
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    Hell, if steve has the chance, he would ban windows from all disney properties, the studios, parks, offices, ABC/ESPN/other cable outfits, and, of cource the back end of all web sites, accross the board, what a better way to show that a major coperaton can go M$-free...



    Steve is a business man. That would be insanely dumb business. He has no loyalty to the mac when something else does the job better and more efficiently. Hence his ThinkPad up until the Wallstreet Powerbooks.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    Quote:

    Originally posted by johnq

    Pipe dream? Or tomorrow's headlines?



    The former.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    Quote:

    Originally posted by johnq

    I know, I know the old Disney rumors are old hat. But they were usually about one buying the other. This one is more logical.



    I would think that Jobs is perfect for this post. He could do to Pixar what he did for his NeXT company and OS, become CEO and have the "new" company buy "his" company. Disney would certainly win by having Pixar in-house, Pixar would have a universe of traditional Disney things to play with plus their own stuff. Plus the likely benefit to Apple if he can swoon the production onto more Macs. What better thing to bring about the Apple iVideoStore than having a partnership with Disney to kick it off? H.264 etc...something in it for everyone.



    Pipe dream? Or tomorrow's headlines?




    The latest Forbes gave Steve a 2.5 or 3 Mickey Mouse Heads (out of 5) as a viable head of Disney. They said he was too busy training his successor at Apple and running Pixar to be a good leader of the Mouse.



    turboSPE
  • Reply 6 of 9
    Quote:

    Originally posted by turbospe

    They said he was too busy training his successor at Apple and running Pixar to be a good leader of the Mouse.



    turboSPE




    Interesting, who is his successor going to be?
  • Reply 7 of 9
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    The difference between Pixar and Disney is that Pixar is a small, focused operation that essentially runs itself. Steve basically handles high-level contractual negotiations, polls the engineers about what they want in a workstation (whence the PMG5, 30" display, Pixlet, Motion...) and lets them play with prototypes, and otherwise leaves them to do their thing. I believe he's at Pixar exactly one day per week.



    Disney, on the other hand, is a troubled behemoth that has been hopelessly distracted from its core talents. I seriously doubt that Steve has the patience to deal with the entirety of the corporation, because of the sheer institutional inertia; if he did come on board, I'd predict a round of divestitures that would leave heads spinning, and a refocusing on the company's core competencies. But I don't think he'll come on board. His fixer-upper company was Apple, and he has a personal investment in that job (also, Apple is much smaller than Disney).
  • Reply 8 of 9
    Quote:

    Originally posted by the cool gut

    Interesting, who is his successor going to be?



    No idea; I looked at the magazine again (I even pulled it out of the trash can for you guys! ) and it's not a full article, just a side bar. Under Steve's picture is the caption, "His Pixar animations provide big hits for Disney. But he's taken an Eisneresque attitude toward grooming his own successor at Apple Computer." Of all the people on Forbes' list, they rated Barry Diller and Peter Chernin with the highest Mickey Mouse Heads.



    turboSPE
  • Reply 9 of 9
    I seriously hate the idea of him being in charge of Disney... if for no other reason than It's not Him! He created Apple. He is Apple. And he bought Pixar off George Lucas for a steal when it was nothing, and he built that into what it is (well, John Lassetter used Jobs' money to build it into what it is). Disney just isn't jobs.



    iDunno
Sign In or Register to comment.