“Now that Pixar and Walt Disney have gone their separate ways, does it make sense for Apple to buy Pixar? After all, both companies are run by Steve Jobs. And Apple, with its huge success in the online music arena, is beginning to look more and more like a content company, as opposed to a pure hardware firm. Plus, Apple is one of the best marketers around,” Paul R. La Monica writes for CNN/Money.
“‘It’s an interesting idea,’ said Dennis McAlpine, an analyst with McAlpine Associates, an independent media research firm. ‘The basis of Pixar’s success is computer animation and Jobs is trying to get more into music and entertainment. It’s a little convoluted but stranger things have happened,'” La Monica writes. “Hey Nemo, Buzz and Sully! Want to check out my new PowerBook G4?”
“An Apple deal for Pixar is certainly doable from a financial standpoint. Apple has $4.8 billion in cash on its balance sheet. Pixar’s market value, as of Thursday’s market close, was $3.6 billion. One person on Yahoo! Finance’s Apple message board seemed to embrace the possibility, titling a post ‘Apple + Pixar= iCartoons.’ Just think of the cross-marketing opportunities,” La Monica writes.
La Monica writes, “Those surfer dude sea turtles from ‘Finding Nemo’ listening to the Beach Boys on their iPods. ‘Toy Story”s Woody using Apple’s new GarageBand software to compose a love song for his girlfriend Bo Peep. And how about Sully from ‘Monsters Inc.’ editing ‘How to Scare Kids’ videos with iMovie on his Power Mac G5?”
“‘Apple is a tech company that is morphing somewhat into an entertainment company but it’s still such a small part of the game for them,’ said Robert Routh, an analyst with Natexis Bleichroeder. ‘In the future, five or ten years down the road, a merger with Pixar might make more sense,'” La Monica reports.
Full article here.