Shareholders of Pixar Animation Studios Inc voted to approve the company's acquisition by The Walt Disney Co for US$7.4 billion in stock.
Friday's vote makes Pixar a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney and makes former Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs Disney's single largest shareholder with about a 7 percent stake.
The deal is squarely aimed at restoring Disney's luster as a leader in the animated film business. Disney's own efforts have faltered over the past 10 years while Pixar's films have been huge successes.
Jobs was named to Disney's board as a non-independent member. He had already said that he would cast his Pixar shares, which represents 40 percent of the company's outstanding stock, in favor of the merger. Shareholders met briefly in San Francisco to ratify the deal.
Under the plan, Pixar shareholders will exchange each of their shares for 2.3 shares of Disney stock.
The acquisition closed quickly after the vote. Regulators had previously signed off on the deal.
"As we begin the next chapter, all of us at Disney are pleased to welcome the incredibly talented Pixar team to our company to continue to create quality entertainment for audiences to enjoy around the world," Disney chief executive Robert Iger said in a statement.
As part of the deal, key Pixar figures will take executive positions at Disney's animation and theme parks units. Pixar will keep its brand name and continue to be headquartered in Emeryville, California, as part of an effort to preserve the creative culture that has fueled its success.
John Lasseter, who was Pixar's executive vice president, becomes chief creative officer of the animation studios and principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company's theme parks.
Lasseter began his career as a Disney animator and is the creative force behind Pixar's films. He will report directly to Iger.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six