More On New Disney

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The big news today is that Disney will buy Pixar for $7 Billion. Now one can understand Steve Job’s enthusiasm about Bob Iger. In fact, Disney and Pixar were almost parting ways before Bob Iger. Surely, Michael Eisner and Steve Jobs did never get along well.

But, anyway, that is not the news. It is an indication how things will move in Disney now. I did have a Wow! feeling when I saw ABC TV shows will now get distributed through iTunes, to be downloaded $1.99 an episode. Well, we all knew it was coming, but then we could all see it was NOT coming. The copyright thinking, which was a last century paradigm, based on an 18th century invention, was coming on the way of technological progress, and would have clobbered Hollywood the same way it destroyed the established music companies.

So, what everyone was expecting a bit of creative destruction. The new business models already were being talked about - as in this set of Fast Company articles. But then Disney moving in to buy Pixar, and trying to create vertically integrated digital studio, will change the game and accelerate the transformation of Hollywood.

Give a thought for George Lucas though! He is the one who funded Pixar in the initial stage, but could not see beyond the obvious and sold it to Steve Jobs for $10 Million in 1986!

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