“Michael Eisner is still getting under Steve Jobs’ skin. During a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Jobs took aim at the Walt Disney Co. chief executive, referring to him as a ‘loose cannon.’ Jobs, the chief executive of both Pixar Animation Studios and Apple Computer Inc., was asked about a dig Eisner took at Pixar last week at an investor conference at Walt Disney World in Florida. Responding to a question about the Burbank entertainment giant’s own digital efforts, Eisner described as ‘pretty pathetic’ the computerized human characters created by Pixar, compared with the ones Disney itself is working on with veteran animator Glen Keane, director of the studio’s forthcoming film ‘Rapunzel Unbraided,'” Claudia Eller reports for The Los Angeles Times.
“Jobs said sarcastically: ‘Our films don’t stack up to ‘Atlantis,’ ‘Emperor’s New Groove’ or ‘Treasure Planet.” All three were hand-drawn Disney disappointments. Jobs then made the loose-cannon reference, saying he figured that it explained why Eisner would say such a thing,” Eller reports.
Full article here.
Even if Steve is bit hard and demanding on his employees it seems to be focused well as the company keeps bringing out hit after hit, great hardware and software.
As for Eisner hes a horrible person and worse leader. The last good Disney movie I saw was Aladdin and that was mostly due credit to Robin Williams. Eisner is just jealous of Steve as Steve can juggle two very successful companies, and look good doing it as well.
Eisner should learn from history. The Incredible vs. Polar Express in terms of realistic human characters in CG. If Eisner failed to see that, he deserves to be ousted SOONER
Say that again, Repulsive Un-brained???
Reading the panic story should honestly give the reader a pretty good sense of what Panic is really like. They aren’t the only Mac-writing software company here in Portland, OR (See VersionTracker, Extensis, to name two) – but these guys really are as down to earth as the article states. These are the companies that, on a much smaller scale, illustrate the things that are great about a business. Very nice read this morning.
Had it been for Eisner, Lost (the ABC hit show) would have never seen the light of day. The man needs to retire..if not then be retired by the board.
giofoto, Jobs is still a tyrant, make no mistake about it. But in a good way. CEO’s need to be demanding. It’s not a popularity Job, although, with that said, Steve is a remarkable nice and good guy. But tough as the day is long.
The funny thing about the story is Eisner talking about how their characters are more lifelike.
It reminds me of Lucas, thinking technology is the answer. The magic of Pixar is actually the story telling. The tech, while amazing, is secondary. And the Disney movies, all of which has been flops for the past 7+ years, didn’t flop because people wanted better animation. They flopped because the story sucked.
Don’t believe me?
Exhibit A: Star Wars I: The Phantom Menance
Exhibit B: Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Both movies with amazing tech, but sucked because the story, writing, and acting were terrible.
The rich are very much different than you and I.
APPLE SCREWING RESELLERS
FROM: Think Secret
Two California Apple resellers shut down, blame Apple
By Ryan Katz, Senior Editor
February 12, 2005 – Two independent Apple dealers in California have shut their doors, blaming Apple’s dealings with them for their inability to maintain operations. San Francisco-based MACadam, which had been in operation for 16 years, and Sacramento-based MacOnline both closed January 28.
While Apple has maintained since the first day it began retail operations that it aimed to complement resellers rather than compete with them, Think Secret reported in June 2004 that Apple’s retail intentions involved shifting customers away from the reseller channel directly to Apple. As Apple rolled out more and more retail stores across the United States, resellers reported increased difficulty in securing adequate quantities of new products from Apple for sale to customers, while Apple’s own retail stores received stock first.
In August 2004 Think Secret reported that Apple had launched an aggressive price matching campaign against third-party resellers, and in October 2004 brought news that Apple was actively pursuing clients from independent dealers, going so far as to phone customers who had recently made a purchase at a reseller to offer better prices on other products than dealers could.
The moves in 2004 came on top of changes in 2003 that made it more difficult for Apple resellers to gain or maintain Apple Specialist status and reduced the number of Specialists, while Apple also launched a direct sales force targeting dealer customers.
Tom Santos, president of MACadam, alleges that Apple’s actions destroyed his business. “I can [cite] a number of reasons why [MACadam closed], but it primarily focuses on but two. The consistent bad behavior of our number one supplier, Apple Computer. They have made it so difficult to both get product in a timely fashion and treat our customers with the respect that they currently treat their Apple Direct customers. We have tried everything to resolve these problems over the last 4 plus years, yet our requests for help have simply gone unanswered,” Santos wrote in a note sent to customers.
MacOnline echoed similar sentiments. A letter taped to the closed doors of MacOnline that boldly begins with “WE QUIT!” goes on to add: “MacOnline cannot compete with Apple’s corporate store in the Arden Fair Mall. Apple Computer has made it impossible for us to compete as Apple fills their retail stores first with new products fulfilling demand, then supplying resellers with only a few units, weeks and sometimes months later. This has destroyed our customer confidence as our customer cannot understand why the Apple store has them in stock and we can’t get them for weeks and months on end. We simply cannot and will not continue to conduct business in this manner.”
Santos made headlines in early 2004 when he filed a suit against Apple that accused the company of breach of contract, fraud, trade libel, unfair competition, false advertising, misappropriation of trade secrets, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and violation of the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, among other charges. Santos launched the site Tell on Apple to serve as a platform for other disenfranchised dealers to voice their frustrations with Apple and join the suit.
A cover story in the January 2005 issue of VARBusiness offers an overview of many independent resellers’ negative experiences with Apple.
Steve you don’t have to be an asshole to run a succesful company – your resellers are the glue that kept Apple together – many of them have suffered financially through the tough times with Apple and THIS is how you look after them?! If you are happy doing this to resellers you deserve less than 5% of all sales
One other thing troubles me. The Apple retail experience is changing. Salespeople in Apple stores in my area are being strong-armed to hard sell Apple Care, Pro Care, etc. Some MBA toting marketing/sales idiot somewhere has decided that it’s a good thing to try to squeeze Apple buyers for a few extra dollars. I think a lot of folks will not enjoy the experience and not be back any time soon. I don’t think this is what Steve Jobs had in mind and I wonder if he’s aware of it. It seems counter to his initial philosophy when he created the stores.
Zeke, complain to Apple. E-mail their site AND talk to the local store’s manager. If they don’t hear any complaints they can’t take action.
The Audion story did not make Steve Jobs look bad. If anything, Audion’s creators come out looking like naive fools. They were given the opportunity to work for Apple but they screwed it up by trying to involve AOL out of a sense of fairness, or something. Apple were at the time in a hurry to create what would become iTunes so while Panic stalled, Apple settled for the second best thing, Soundjam. I see nothing wrong with Steve Jobs’ conduct with these people, except maybe putting his feet up on a conference table.
Let’s make fun at one of our biggest money making partners, Mike’s a genious… what an idiot.
Eisner is and always was an ass.
When he was running Paramount Studios into the ground he had little sense of what was good or bad. What he did have was a good team around him who he allowed to do their jobs and make him look good.
He brought them with him to Disney and they where able to turn around the company. Disney was in danger of being taken over in a hostile bid and Roy Disney brought in Eisner to right the ship.
So after getting things back on track he started a policy of milking all the Disney assets for all they where worth. A Disney store everywhere you looked, Euro Disney….
The films went downhill after he fired Jeffery Katzenberg who is really responsible for bringing the animation department back. He then put the “suits” in charge of animation and you can see the results.
Recently he said that nobody could tell the difference between a Disney animated cartoon and one done in Asia for Saturday morning cartoons. So why not do all of them that way?
He also regarded Finding Nemo as Pixar’s worst film and was happy to that it would tank. Didn’t really work out like that.
I respect what he did back in the eighties to bring Disney back but he has milked this company for his own gains for too long.
recently when at an event honoring great inovators someone asked him who he thought was one. He drew a blank. When they suggested Walt Disney he just grunted.
Jack Skellington, good comment.
I think that the *suits* are the whole problem with disney. God, I hate jews.
To username;
I never mentioned in one place that this was anything about being Jewish. How do you know I am not Jewish? Granted I am not but your statement belies any intelligent discussion on this matter. I try to judge people on their actions not their race/religion. Being an Ass knows no race or creed as you just ably displayed.
As for Disney itself, the company needs a Steve Jobs or John Lasseter at the helm. Someone with vision and a good sense of what Disney was about. There is always enough accountants and middle managers around to screw things up or run the biz. They are a dime a dozen.
When Walt Disney was alive he was the creative backbone and the visionary of the company. His brother Roy, his business partner and second in command was there to make sure of the details.
Disney is run by suits who have no vision and wouldn’t know one if it bit them in the ass.
“I think that the *suits* are the whole problem with disney. God, I hate jews.”
great, just great… ugh. Go crawl under a rock.
Thats the trouble with beliefs, they just lye around, waiting for supporting evidence, however tenuous.
Here’s a cool blurb a friend of mine sent me:
Eisner Was Wrong About ‘Nemo’ Too, Says Book
Michael Eisner predicted in writing that Pixar’s Finding Nemo would break the computer animation studio’s string of hits, the upcoming James Stewart book DisneyWar reveals, according to the New York Daily News. The News revealed that latest tidbit from the highly anticipated book one day after the New York Times disclosed that Eisner had written off the potential of Lost, which, as it turned out, became one of ABC’s biggest hits this season. Likewise, Finding Nemo earned close to $1 billion for the studio. The book cites a memo that Eisner wrote to the Disney board after he saw Nemo a second time. “This will be a reality check for those guys [Pixar]. … It’s OK, but nowhere near as good as their previous films. Of course, they think it’s great. Trust me, it’s not, but it will open.” During a conference call with analysts following the release of Pixar’s fourth-quarter results, Pixar chief Steve Jobs called Eisner a “loose cannon.”
He also has a few “loose” marbles, too!
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Last month, while visiting my mother, I went to the Blockbuster video rental store to rent a fun, G rated genre movie to see with her. For the first time in years, I checked out the animated picture section. I was looking for a quality Disney film like Lion King or Little Mermaid. To my surprise, those titles were not there, but there were tens of Disney animation videos I had never heard of, or strange sequels to the classics. To me, it felt like they were diluting the brand to make a quick buck on an unsuspecting or acquiescent consumer. I felt a bit sad for the great Disney name. I wondered why the Disney execs would allow the “magic” of Disney to be dissipated this way. Makes no sense to me, but I am just one of “the little people”. I ended up renting “Finding Nemo” and my mother loved it!
dude, emperor’s new groove is one of my fav movies, above every pixar movie. atlantis was great too.
pixar makes great movies, yes. but who is jobs to bash the disney ones? they weren’t in the same arena.
not to meantion that disney is still the #1 animation studio on the planet. you put proper leadership behind that again, and not even Pixar could hold out.
now, if you ask me, thesteve may be that leadership, but we’ll see.
well, that is if they turn down my resume.
“One other thing troubles me. The Apple retail experience is changing. Salespeople in Apple stores in my area are being strong-armed to hard sell Apple Care, Pro Care, etc. Some MBA toting marketing/sales idiot somewhere has decided that it’s a good thing to try to squeeze Apple buyers for a few extra dollars. I think a lot of folks will not enjoy the experience and not be back any time soon. I don’t think this is what Steve Jobs had in mind and I wonder if he’s aware of it. It seems counter to his initial philosophy when he created the stores.”
The Apple stores need to make money, period, and that means selling as much as possible to the people walking into the stores. As for strong arming, who says you can’t say no? Thats’s what I say (except I did buy apple care for my 17″PB) whenever I buy something in Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. They ALL try to sell you a warranty.
In order to run a profitable electronics retail operation in this day and age, you need the warranty sales because the profits on hardware and peripherals are so thin.
I see jobs as the one fighting back here. Eizner says Pixars digital cartoons are pretty pathetic? That’s why they keep sweeping awards and box office numbers because they are pretty pathetic. Right. Eizner deserves it in my
book.