Disney Pixar
Pixar 2001
The Future of the Disney Alliance
I. Introduction
It was Monday morning, November 5, 2001. Steve Jobs, CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, had just finished reviewing the opening weekend box office receipts for Monsters, Inc., the latest theatrical release produced by the partnership between Pixar and Disney. He sat back and pondered the future of his company and its relationship with Disney.
Jobs needed to consider the brand equity that Pixar had established through its recent successes, primarily through its alliance with Disney. He needed to take the company’s financial status into consideration, along with the recent and future activities of its competitors, and an honest assessment of the company’s competitive advantage in the realm of digitally animated film product. Was it their technology? Was it their creativity and story-telling ability? Was it their ability to meld these elements together in an effective, box-office-friendly manner? Or, was it something else altogether?
Jobs thought about Pixar’s alliance with Disney, and wondered whether or not his company had reached a point where it was time to move beyond this lucrative but evolved partnership. He asked himself several questions. What is the value of Pixar’s alliance with Disney? How has that value changed over the last few years since the company restructured its agreement in 1997? Would Disney’s complementary assets retain the same value for Pixar in the future? Such questions led Jobs to wonder whether it was high time for Pixar to consider breaking away from Disney. If so, how should they go forward? Should Pixar court the potential suitors who had taken notice of its success? Or, perhaps, was it time to grow Pixar as an independent player in the field of digitally animated films?
This case was written by MBA candidates Chad Brown, William Colon, Adam Glaser and Gabrielle Wesley under the supervision of Dr. Allan Afuah, Assistant Professor of Corporate
The Future of the Disney Alliance
I. Introduction
It was Monday morning, November 5, 2001. Steve Jobs, CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, had just finished reviewing the opening weekend box office receipts for Monsters, Inc., the latest theatrical release produced by the partnership between Pixar and Disney. He sat back and pondered the future of his company and its relationship with Disney.
Jobs needed to consider the brand equity that Pixar had established through its recent successes, primarily through its alliance with Disney. He needed to take the company’s financial status into consideration, along with the recent and future activities of its competitors, and an honest assessment of the company’s competitive advantage in the realm of digitally animated film product. Was it their technology? Was it their creativity and story-telling ability? Was it their ability to meld these elements together in an effective, box-office-friendly manner? Or, was it something else altogether?
Jobs thought about Pixar’s alliance with Disney, and wondered whether or not his company had reached a point where it was time to move beyond this lucrative but evolved partnership. He asked himself several questions. What is the value of Pixar’s alliance with Disney? How has that value changed over the last few years since the company restructured its agreement in 1997? Would Disney’s complementary assets retain the same value for Pixar in the future? Such questions led Jobs to wonder whether it was high time for Pixar to consider breaking away from Disney. If so, how should they go forward? Should Pixar court the potential suitors who had taken notice of its success? Or, perhaps, was it time to grow Pixar as an independent player in the field of digitally animated films?
This case was written by MBA candidates Chad Brown, William Colon, Adam Glaser and Gabrielle Wesley under the supervision of Dr. Allan Afuah, Assistant Professor of Corporate