It’s the rumor that just won’t go away.
That — even though Pixar Animation Studio officially broke off contract extension talks with the Walt Disney Company back on January 29th — that this Emeryville, CA. based corporation remains eager to get back in bed with the Mouse.
Certainly there have been enough signs lately that this story could perhaps be true. Take — for example — Steve Jobs’ comment during Pixar’s infamous quarterly earning conference call back on February 4th. You know, the one where Steve went out of his way to trash Michael Eisner’s tenure as head of the Mouse House? Back then — in a somewhat startling reversal — Pixar’s CEO made a point of saying something nice about *** Cook, the Chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Saying:
“We will truly miss working with *** Cook and his terrific marketing and distribution teams.”
Jobs then followed this comment up with a sentence that seemed to stress that — while Pixar’s CEO may personally loath Disney’s CEO — Steve and his senior management team had nothing but respect for the Walt Disney Company’s creative legacy. This read:
“And you would be hard pressed to find someone who loves the original spirit of Disney more than John Lasseter, Ed Catmull or myself.”
Investment analysts spent weeks parsing those two particular sentences. Trying to glean their exact meaning. Was this an attempt by Pixar senior management to lure *** Cook away from Disney? Or was Jobs attempting to leave a back door open somehow for the Disney / Pixar contract extension talks to eventually resume? Provided — of course — that Michael Eisner were to suddenly resign from the Walt Disney Company.
Wall Street insiders were further encouraged by the news that Pixar Animation Studio would be postponing all talks with possible new film distribution partners ’til at least the middle of March. A time period that — not-so-co-incidentally — would directly follow last week’s “Save Disney” rally as well as the Walt Disney Company’s annual shareholder meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
And corporate conspiracy theorists were further encouraged by “Finding Nemo” ‘s director Andrew Stanton’s comments from the stage of the Kodak Theatre back on February 29th. As Stanton accepted the “Best Animated Feature” Oscar at this years’ Academy Awards, the Pixar vet (echoing Steve Jobs’ earlier comments) took time out during his 90 second acceptance speech to deliberately thank “… *** Cook and his great marketing and distribution team at Disney.”
So who says that you have to use Western Union if you want to send a message?
Certainly not Roy Disney. At last Tuesday morning’s “Save Disney” press conference, Roy went on the record to say:
“If Michael Eisner were gone, we could probably have a new deal on the table with Pixar within weeks.”
And — later on that very same day — at the “Save Disney” briefing and reception, Roy made the Disney faithful cheer by stating:
“Backstage at this past weekend’s Academy Awards, I spoke with the guys at Pixar. And they said that they’d be back to work with Disney within days if Eisner were gone.”
Roy’s comments obviously underlines and re-enforces everything that Steve Jobs and Andrew Stanton have said previously. The only problem is … what does Disney’s Board of Directors now do with this information?
For make no mistake, folks. That’s who this “Pixar will return if Eisner is gone” message is actually directed at. George Mitchell, Bob Iger and the rest of the crew that sits around that big conference table upstairs in the Team Disney Burbank building. With the hope that — once the investment community has become aware that this “Pixar will return if Eisner is gone” opportunity is on the table. That Disney hasn’t actually lost its opportunity to renew a deal with Pixar. That all it has to do is oust the company’s CEO — this gambit will significantly increase the outside pressure on Disney’s board to remove Michael.
The only problem is … Disney’s board of directors are really in “Circle the Wagons” mode right about now. With Mitchell newly appointed as Mickey’s toothless chairman of the corporation, it now looks there’ll be no immedieate changes to Disney management. At least for the foreseeable future.
Which is why the folks at Shamrock are currently weighing their options. Among these include taking Disney’s board of directors to court. Arguing that — by responding to last Wednesday’s record “Withhold” proxy vote just by stripping Eisner of his Chairman’s title and appointing Mitchell to that now vacant position — Disney’s board is deliberately ignoring the shareholder’s will. Which (to Roy and Stanley’s way of thinking, anyway) is a total irresponsible way to run a publicly held corporation.
In the meantime, Pixar’s management team (which had really hoped that a high enough vote-of-no-confidence level at last Wednesday’s shareholder’s meeting would result in Eisner immediately being asked to step down) is reportedly looking into additional delaying tactics. Seeing if they can create semi-logical-sounding reasons for putting off this month’s previously scheduled meetings with Paramount, Warners., Sony and Fox for another couple of weeks.
Just so that the folks at Shamrock will have the time they need to really ratchet up the pressure on Disney’s Board of Directors. Which will (perhaps) result in an early exit by Eisner, followed closely by Pixar’s triumphant return.
Here’s hoping, anyway …