But Pixar was not a movie maker in 1986 when Jobs invested in it, it was a computer maker. Jobs was interested in the PIC (Pixar Image Computer), a graphics computer used in medicine, geophysics and meteo. He offered to invest $5M on a whim, which Lucas found ridiculously low but eventually accepted after he was refused by 35 other investors.
Between 1986-1994 Pixar’s computer did fairly poorly, ousting most of its original employees and continously losing money. Jobs had been maneuvering until he ended up the major stockholder, but he was constantly thinking about selling it.
Pixar was saved by $26M from Disney, for whom they’d produced CGI scenes over the years, who ordered 3 computer-generated movies. The first of them was Toy Story, which made Pixar’s IPO skyrocket and their stock price to double overnight. By 2006 when Disney finally bought Pixar they had to pay $7.4B, about half of which went to Jobs (and it was paid in Disney shares, which continued to grow after that).
Jobs does deserve credit after Toy Story for becoming CEO, getting involved and driving some hard bargains with Disney, but during the early ears it was mostly dumb luck. If instead of investing in 1995 Disney had offered to buy Pixar from him he would have sold it. He offered it to Hallmark, Paul Allen and Larry Ellison but nobody wanted it.
NeXT didn’t go anywhere, but the other company he funded and helped spin off certainly did. Pixar.
But Pixar was not a movie maker in 1986 when Jobs invested in it, it was a computer maker. Jobs was interested in the PIC (Pixar Image Computer), a graphics computer used in medicine, geophysics and meteo. He offered to invest $5M on a whim, which Lucas found ridiculously low but eventually accepted after he was refused by 35 other investors.
Between 1986-1994 Pixar’s computer did fairly poorly, ousting most of its original employees and continously losing money. Jobs had been maneuvering until he ended up the major stockholder, but he was constantly thinking about selling it.
Pixar was saved by $26M from Disney, for whom they’d produced CGI scenes over the years, who ordered 3 computer-generated movies. The first of them was Toy Story, which made Pixar’s IPO skyrocket and their stock price to double overnight. By 2006 when Disney finally bought Pixar they had to pay $7.4B, about half of which went to Jobs (and it was paid in Disney shares, which continued to grow after that).
Jobs does deserve credit after Toy Story for becoming CEO, getting involved and driving some hard bargains with Disney, but during the early ears it was mostly dumb luck. If instead of investing in 1995 Disney had offered to buy Pixar from him he would have sold it. He offered it to Hallmark, Paul Allen and Larry Ellison but nobody wanted it.