What does Buzz Lightyear have to do with Steve Jobs? A character from an already iconic animated saga and one who was co-founder and CEO of one of the most important technology companies in the world. share the trajectory. It’s not something we know now, but it doesn’t hurt to remember it either. Or simply say it, because many people are unaware of this common history between Apple and Pixar.
This all dates back to almost 40 years ago, when Steve Jobs left Apple and saw some difficulties within NeXT, a company he founded at that time. The figure of the former CEO of Apple It was fundamental to the creation of the Pixar we know today. “Toy Story” was the start of it all.
What was Pixar and what did Steve Jobs paint there in the late 70s
If an alien comes and asks us what Pixar is, we can summarize it by saying that it is a film company owned by Disney and that it has big hits behind it like “Toy Story”, “Monsters SA”, ” The Incredibles. or, in other words, the most recent, “Luca”. However, 40 years ago, Pixar wasn’t Disney and it wasn’t called Pixar either. It wasn’t even a signature of the film, although it had a lot to do with it.
George Lucas also participated in the birth of Pixar, the famous director of the ‘Star Wars’ saga, among others. Lucas’ production company, Lucasfilm, had a subsidiary called The Graphics Group that worked on the advancement and development of technology for special effects. For this company, certain associations were sought with certain large companies such as Philips, but the negotiations were not successful.
The person who purchased The Graphic Group was Steve Jobs himself. He did it in 1982 and for an amount close to five million dollars. Cheap for what it ended up being, even if at the beginning it was not yet an audiovisual production company. Already with Jobs as owner, the company’s flagship product was the Pixar Image Computer, an advanced computer that failed to establish itself in the market, nor in the niche for which it was intended (governments and doctors).
Lawrence Levy, the other centerpiece of Pixar and whom Jobs convinced to join
That Pixar was geared toward selling hardware was something to be expected if Pixar Image Computer had been successful. However, with barely 300 units sold, in 1994 it was decided to put an end to it and start implementing this goal that many members of The Graphic Group had: create computer-generated feature films.
One of the fundamental elements for this was to take the company public. So a good financial administrator was needed to come up with a roadmap that would lead them to success. This is where the figure of Lawrence Levy appeared, who had already held a management position in the financial field of an electronics company, but I had no experience in an audiovisual company like Pixar was. Or rather, as Pixar intended it to be.
The seduction techniques that Steve Jobs used to attract people to his projects are famous. One of the most famous was the one he used with John Sculley, who was CEO of Pepsi and whom Jobs wanted to join Apple. He told her this now legendary phrase: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
With Lawrence Levy, the technique did not transcend, but Jobs managed to add it to Pixar and this moment was blessed for the company. In an interview published six years ago, Levy admitted it was a very risky decision. Receiving a call from Steve Jobs was already exciting at that time, but the truth is that after leaving Apple he was closer to failure than success.
And “Toy Story” happened…
The restructuring of the company, with Levy already on the team and with new goals, was already underway. Also the creation of the first computer-generated animated film. An important milestone not only for Pixar, but for the entire audiovisual industry.
In the meantime, many obstacles have been overcome, both technological and commercial, including distribution logistics. In all this, Jobs took a lot of effort, reach historic agreement with Disney which was closed in mid-1991. An agreement that would allow Pixar to present its “Toy Story” in cinemas around the world, but with important exemptions in terms of rights and benefits, since the company founded by Walt Disney took over 100% of the film rights and a little less than 90% of the revenues from the collection.
On the face of it, this would be a rather unfair deal. And even with everything that followed, it seems that was the case. However, The success of “Toy Story” and Pixar was immediate. The film was eventually released in late November 1995, grossing $30 million in its opening weekend. In it, Steve Jobs is credited as executive producer.
The week immediately following this weekend, Pixar went public. attract the interest of thousands of investors who saw the full potential of Pixar. So much so that it ended up offsetting that difficult deal with Disney, laying the foundation for the company’s growth and allowing it to obtain financing for its many future projects that we have supported over the past three decades .
Jobs also played a central role in Disney’s takeover of Pixar
Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Bob Iger
Just two years after the great success of “Toy Story”, in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple, although he did not leave Pixar. Not completely at least. The new CEO of the Apple company still held stock in the animation company, although his involvement in the development of later films was zero (although some credit was still given to him with special thanks).
The fact is that in 2000, Bob Iger became CEO of Disney, a position he still holds (even though he retired from 2020 to 2022). The important thing is that Iger and Jobs had an excellent relationship that ensured that by early January 2006, Disney definitively bought Pixar for an amount of around $7.5 million.
Oddly enough, most of Jobs’ fortune came from Disney, not Apple.
Thanks to this, Steve Jobs obtained 138 million Disney shares, which they brought him 8 billion dollars until 2011, the year of his death. A curious fact if we compare it to what Apple shares brought him, of which he only symbolically held 0.1% after getting rid of the remaining 19.9% he owned.
As it happened, “Toy Story” ended up being not only a film that left its mark on an entire generation (myself included), but it also demonstrated the capabilities of computers to create feature-length animated films. In doing so, it gave relevance to a Pixar now integrated with Disney and left people like Steve Jobs with a huge fortune based on its high stock market valuation.
Cover image | Fortune
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