Disney's Acquisition of Pixar
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Case Code: BSTR203 Case Length: 13 Pages Period: 1995-2005 Pub Date: 2006 Teaching Note: Not Available |
Price: Rs.300 Organization: Walt Disney, Pixar Industry: Media , Entertainment, Gaming Countries: US Themes: Mergers, Acquisitions, Strategic Alliances |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Background Note
Disney
In 1923, Walt Elias Disney (Walt) arrived in California from Kansas City, bringing with him an animation film, Alice's Wonderland. On October 16, 1923, M.J Winkler (Winkler), a distributor, agreed to distribute the Alice Comedies and bought each character for US$ 1,500. This marked the beginning of Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt's brother Roy Disney (Roy) sharing an equal partnership in the venture. Later, the name was changed to Walt Disney Studio. In 1927, after making Alice Comedies for four years, Walt created a new character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit10 to start a new animation series. By this time, Winkler had handed over the business to her husband Charles Mintz (Mintz).
After a year, as Oswald gained popularity, Walt tried to re-negotiate his contract for higher money. However, by that time, Mintz had poached Walt's employees to create an Oswald's series in his own studio. Walt also learned that he did not legally own the rights for Oswald. When Mintz demanded that Walt should work exclusively for him, Walt refused and parted ways.
After his break-up with Mintz, Walt wanted to create a character stronger than Oswald. He visualized a new character in the form of a mouse and planned to name it 'Mortimer,' but on his wife's suggestion changed it to 'Mickey.' This marked the birth of the world famous 'Mickey Mouse' (Mickey). Initially, it was not easy for Walt to sell the new Mickey to the distributors as it had to compete with the popular Felix the Cat11 and Oswald. Walt's first animation film featuring Mickey, Plane Crazy (released in May 1928), failed to impress the audience who felt that Mickey resembled Oswald closely. Walt created the second Mickey feature film titled The llopin' Gaucho, but couldn't find distributors...
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