Beyond the show — Disney · Bob Iger · 2006

Disney's creative engine has stalled and the company that replaced it is walking away. Do you rebuild animation yourself, renew the deal on Pixar's terms, or buy Pixar outright at a price the board thinks is absurd?

You have been chief executive for three months. Disney Animation, the studio that built the company, has not had a hit of its own in a decade; Home on the Range lost money and Chicken Little was mediocre. Every animated success Disney has released since Toy Story in 1995 was made by Pixar, under a distribution deal that ends after Cars this year. Pixar's chairman is Steve Jobs, who spent the last two years of your predecessor's tenure publicly refusing to renew because Michael Eisner had insulted him. Pixar has never made a film that lost money. It is worth, on the market, something like $6 billion, and it does not need you. Your board has just watched Disney's own animators fail for ten years and is nervous about paying a premium for a studio you already distribute.

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