Disney buying Pixar for $7.4B
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday it is buying longtime partner Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion US in a deal that could restore Disney's clout in animation while vaulting Pixar CEO Steve Jobs into a powerful role at the media conglomerate.
Disney will buy the maker of the blockbuster films Toy Story and Finding Nemo in an all-stock transaction that makes Jobs Disney's largest shareholder. Jobs, who controls more than half of Pixar's stock and also heads Apple Computer Inc., will also join Disney's board.
"With this transaction, we welcome and embrace Pixar's unique culture, which for two decades, has fostered some of the most innovative and successful films in history," Disney chief executive Robert Iger said in a statement.
Disney has co-financed and distributed Pixar's animated films for the past 12 years, splitting the profits. But that deal expires in June after Pixar delivers Cars.
Disney, the theme park owner that also owns the ABC and ESPN TV networks, and Pixar have been talking for months about a new relationship.
Pixar executive vice-president John Lasseter will become chief creative officer of the animation studios and principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company's theme parks.
Pixar president Ed Catmull will serve as president of the new combined Pixar and Disney animation studios, reporting to Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.
"Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders," Jobs said in a statement. "Now, everyone can focus on what is most important, creating innovative stories, characters and films that delight millions of people around the world."
Under the deal, Disney said it will issue 2.3 shares for each share of Pixar stock. At Tuesday's closing price of $25.99 for Disney, Pixar shareholders would get stock worth $59.78, a four per cent premium over Pixar's closing price of $57.57. The deal was announced after the markets closed for the day,
With Pixar, Disney gains a company that has produced a long-running string of animated blockbusters, including The Incredibles.
Through Jobs, Disney tightens its link with Apple Computer, the innovative technology company behind music and video IPods.
Disney is not acquiring a direct interest in Apple. But Jobs could help Iger push his plans to marry films, TV shows, video games and other content to computers, IPods, handheld game consoles and even cellphones.
The deal will accelerate Iger's plans to strengthen Disney's animated features, the hallmark of the company since its founding and a steady source of characters for Disney's theme parks and other units.
Pixar has served as Disney's de facto animation unit for a decade. Two Pixar movies, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, have won Academy Awards for best animated feature film.
Pixar films have been a financial windfall for Disney, which receives 60 per cent of the profits.
By contrast, Disney's own animation unit has struggled, producing some modest successes, such as 2002's Lilo & Stitch, and many flops, including Treasure Planet and Home on the Range.
Its first fully computer-animated effort, Chicken Little, grossed more than $100 million domestically since its release last year and will likely be profitable. But that figure falls well short of the more than $200 million domestic gross of 2004's The Incredibles.
Disney and Pixar had been discussing an extension of their distribution deal since early 2003. Last year, analysts said striking that agreement was Iger's top priority.
The talks stalled in 2004 after Pixar demanded that it own 100 per cent of all future films and pay Disney a straight distribution fee, similar to the deal Star Wars creator George Lucas had with Twentieth Century Fox.
Pixar also wanted ownership of all the films already produced as well as two that were remaining under the existing agreement at the time.
Personal animosity between Jobs and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner also contributed to the breakdown.
In 2004, Jobs broke off talks with Disney and said he would begin talking to other studios, including Fox and Warner Bros. Relations soured even more after Disney announced it would make the sequel Toy Story 3, a project strongly opposed by Pixar.
The relationship between the two companies goes back to 1991, when Disney agreed to finance and distribute three films from the fledgling company.
That deal led to the release of Toy Story in 1995 - the world's first fully computer animated feature film. It was a huge hit and became the highest-grossing film that year.
The same year, Pixar raised $140 million in an initial public offering.
Pink Asserts Vitality On New Album
Pop vocalist Pink will release her next album, "I'm Not Dead," April 4 via LaFace. The Dave Meyers-directed video for first single "Stupid Girl" will premiere Thursday (Jan. 26) on the MTV broadband network Overdrive. A send-up of superficial culture, the clip finds Pink dancing next to a 50 Cent lookalike, wielding an inflatable chest and crashing a car while talking on her cell phone.
Executive produced by the artist, "I'm Not Dead" also features contributions from songwriter/producers like Max Martin, Billy Mann, Butch Walker, Mike Elizondo and Luke Gottwald. The Indigo Girls also appear on an as-yet-unnamed track.
According to a letter posted by the artist last fall on her official Web site, a DVD featuring unknown content will be released simultaneously with "I'm Not Dead." "I'm trying to save you a trip to the store," she wrote.
The album is the follow-up to 2003's "Try This," which has sold 700,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its predecessor, 2001's "M!ssundaztood," has moved 5.2 million copies and spawned four top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hits.
Actor Chris Penn dead, no sign of foul play-police
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Character actor Chris Penn, younger brother of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, was found dead on Tuesday at an apartment near the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, police sources said.
No cause of death was immediately determined but there was no signs of foul play, the sources added.
A family spokeswoman confirmed the death and said the Penn family "would appreciate the media's respect of their privacy during this difficult time."
Penn, 43, was a character actor who appeared in dozens of films including "Reservoir Dogs," "Mullholland Falls" and the 2004 film "Starsky & Hutch."
In one of his best known roles, he played baby-faced criminal Nice Guy Eddie Cabot in director Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." He also starred along with his brother in the 1986 film "At Close Range."
Recently, Penn voiced Officer Eddie Pulaski in the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."
Thurber to direct 'Magnum' remake
"Dodgeball" helmer Rawson Marshall Thurber has signed on to write and direct the big-screen adaptation of the '80s TV classic "Magnum, P.I.," Variety reports.
The film, produced by Brian Grazer ("A Beautiful Mind," "Cinderella Man"), will mix humour and danger, much like the Tom Selleck-starring series.
The storyline features Magnum, with the help of his former military pals, searching for a missing friend.
Casting has yet to start for the film, and there is no word on whether Selleck will star in the movie version.
Coldplay, Nickelback to play Junos
HALIFAX (CP) - Coldplay, Michael Buble and Nickelback will bring their star power to this year's Juno Awards, organizers announced Monday.
Trophies will be distributed on April 2 from Halifax's Metro Centre. The Junos will once again be spread over three days and will include a celebrity hockey game.
Nominations for the awards will be announced on Feb. 15.
Superstar Collaborations Join Grammy Lineup
Irish rockers U2 will be joined by R&B diva Mary J. Blige as one of several big name collaborations during the upcoming 48th annual Grammy Awards. Also due to pair up on stage are Faith Hill and Keith Urban, Christina Aguilera and Herbie Hancock and Jamie Foxx with previously announced performer Kanye West.
Although specific songs have yet to be confirmed, it seems likely U2 and Blige will reprise their cover of the latter's "One," the studio version of which appeared on Blige's recent album, "The Breakthrough." Last year, Aguilera sang on "A Song for You" from Hancock's latest album, "Possibilities."
West and his fellow lead nominees Mariah Carey and John Legend were the first confirmed artists for the Feb. 8 show, which will take place at Los Angeles' Staples Center and be broadcast live on CBS. As previously reported, all three are tied with eight nominations.
Additionally, the Recording Academy has confirmed the show's first presenters: country duo Big & Rich and actors Tom Hanks ("The DaVinci Code") and Terrence Howard ("Get Rich or Die Tryin'").
Disney board okays takeover offer to Pixar: source
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The board of Walt Disney Co. has authorized Chief Executive Robert Iger to make an offer to buy Pixar Animation Studios Inc., and that is expected by Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter said late on Monday.
Pixar's board is expected to consider the offer on Tuesday as well, said the source, who did not disclose financial terms.
The Pixar board was expected to confer by telephone, the source said.
In the event a decision is reached, an announcement by Disney would be expected after the market closes, the source said.
Pixar shares closed at $58.27 on Monday on Nasdaq, putting its market value at just under $7 billion. The shares have risen about 12 percent in the last month, partly on speculation that Disney would buy the computer animation company that created such hits as "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles."
Shares of Disney were up nearly 2 percent, or 48 cents, at $26.01 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Pixar shares were down 8 cents at $58.19 on Nasdaq.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Disney is considering an all-stock offer, which would make Pixar Chief Executive Steve Jobs the company's largest individual shareholder.
The Journal reported late on Monday that the offer under consideration would give Jobs, who has a controlling stake in Pixar, a seat on the Disney board.
Disney, for decades the world leader in hand-drawn animated films such as "Pinocchio" and "Lion King," has struggled in recent years to maintain its position in an industry that has embraced computer-generated films.
Although Disney has not produced a blockbuster animated film on its own in years, the six films Pixar and Disney made since the 1995 release of "Toy Story" have grossed more than $3.2 billion.
Jobs had feuded publicly with Iger's predecessor, Michael Eisner, and broke off negotiations for a new distribution agreement with Disney about two years ago.
Iger, who succeeded Eisner as Disney's CEO in October, made a priority of smoothing over relations with Jobs and was in the midst of renegotiating the distribution pact, which expires in June with the release of "Cars," when takeover rumors surfaced.
Jobs, who is also chief executive of Apple Computer Inc., has already led a revolution in digital delivery of content by providing legal downloads of music through Apple's iTunes Music Store and by striking a deal with Iger and Disney to offer video downloads of ABC television shows.
A deal that would give Jobs a Disney board seat could also put him in a position to lead Hollywood's move onto the Web.
The Disney board may also approve a buyer for the company's ABC Radio assets, worth an estimated $2.6 billion to $2.9 billion, from among several bidders.
Sources familiar with the radio transaction said on Friday that Disney was within a week or two of deciding on a buyer.