There’s a story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today about Disney being in serious talks to buy Pixar. This would be a huge win for Steve Jobs. Absolutely huge. And not just because it would make his stake in Pixar worth about $4 billion. Consider the investment genius here, from the WSJ piece:
Mr. Jobs acquired the computer-graphics division of filmmaker George Lucas’s Lucasfilm Ltd. for $10 million in 1986 and financed the company, which he renamed Pixar, throughout the late 1980s and early ’90s out of his own pocket as it produced short films, commercials and software.
That original investment has increased 39,900%. Pretty good, even spread out over 20 years.
But the real kicker here is that Steve was right, and he loves more than anything to be right. When it comes to investing, Steve’s got the same genes as Warren Buffet. Jobs understood that people loved to be entertained, and his experience with the Mac, not to mention what George Lucas had done with ILM, convinced him computers were going to be the way to create this content.
So, you need to wrap your mind around the fact that Steve Jobs is likely going to be one of — if not the — most influential entertainment mogul in the first half of the 21st Century. I hope he remembers to send Bill a Christmas card every year.