How Steve Jobs Saved Pixar from the Brink of Bankruptcy

By taking over Graphic Group, which was once a company that only produced software, Jobs gave birth to Pixarnow opens the doors of a magical world to us with animation.

Today pixar; It doesn’t just color our screens, it touches the hearts of everyone from seven to seventy. When you look at how Steve Jobs created this magical world, you will understand that it is not just about Apple.

When Steve Jobs is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is Apple.

Becoming an integral part of our lives iPhones, MacBooks Although the first thing that comes to our mind is Steve Jobs, we need to know that he did much more than that. Because many people today don’t know how Pixar was born.

In fact Steve Jobs, He acquired Pixar, the media company known for its animated films, and reinvented it, revealing his journeyman work in this field.

Pixar, originally known as Graphics Group and Sub-brand of Walt Disney Studios It was established as a company that has gained a great reputation today.

Pixar was founded in 1979 as part of Lucasfilm and began working with Industrial Light & Magic in 1982.

In 1986, Steve Jobs To director George Lucas, who heads the Graphic Group and created Star Wars. He purchased the company by paying 5 million dollars and putting 5 million dollars of capital into the company.

This acquisition initiated a change that targeted much more than just a company that produced animation software at that time. Name of the company Pixar Animation Studios and determined his new vision as developing animated films. So what made this story so exciting?

pixar, was initially founded out of Steve’s desire to build powerful computers. However, when things did not go as expected, he decided to make short animations to advertise products that received less attention than expected. Luxo Jr. emerged as a product of these efforts. The short animation called became Pixar’s logo.

Although the company produced award-winning short animations, it was struggling to make a profit.

In addition to producing hardware and software, Pixar also produced short animated films and commercials. Steve Jobs to cover the company’s losses every month from his own pocket He had to pay.

He was able to maintain this position from 1985 to 1994, paying out a total of $50 million. to the company in 1994 To breathe new life into it, Lawrence Levy was hired as chief financial officer.

When Levy watched a few minutes of a demo of an unreleased movie Even though he had hesitations at first He decided to join the company. So what impressed him?

Andrew What surprised Lawrence was the impressive visuality of the toys that came to life when the child named left the room. While the film was still in production, the demo was gorgeous, despite the faulty shadows and lighting.

But it wasn’t just the demo that impressed Lawrence, but also the way the people in the office did their job. There were huge mirrors in the office and the employees To produce more realistic animations They were using mirrors.

Jobs, at the timeI didn’t start Pixar to be a company that tells fairy talesEven though he used expressions such as “, he could not prevent the transformation of the company.

Lawrence LevyHe thought that all projects other than feature animation should be canceled in order for Pixar to make a profit, and he managed to persuade Steve to do so.

Animations had now become Pixar’s main business, rather than advertising its own products. Company, from being a software company It literally became an animation company.

If you thought everything was fine, you were wrong. There were two important problems for Levy: Why Pixar employees hated Steve Jobs and how was the terrible Disney contract made all those years ago allowed, and what decision did Steve Jobs make about it?

Even though Jobs covered Pixar’s losses from his personal resources, there was a fear of him among the company’s employees. employees, They thought Jobs might get bored one day and close the company. because doing this job wasn’t what he wanted. Although a wall formed between Pixar and Steve Jobs due to various problems of this kind, it was overcome over time.

Let’s talk about his relationship with Disney…

Pixar was Disney’s number one competitor. Disney, the largest animation company in the industry, agreed to give Pixar only a 10% share of each film’s box office.

He also stipulated that only Disney’s name should appear on the posters of the films. Disney actually 3D animation technology brought by Pixar found its potential threatening to its own markets. For this reason, he did not want to advertise Pixar for free and preferred to highlight his own name.

Steve Jobs collaborated with Disney for the Toy Story project. After you manage to change the agreement It brought Pixar a significant portion of the revenue from the films’ box office.

However, with this success, another problem arose for Levy: The box office success of Toy Story. Pixar needed to make a huge box office hit to survive, as Disney’s experience in this regard was much broader.

In 2006, the company achieved great success and its shares reached a high value.

But only by making animated films Sustaining this success was risky. Therefore, there were two options left: either expanding the company by opening it to different sectors or selling it to Disney.

Jobs thought that he would not have enough time to grow the company due to his struggle with cancer and his intense time with Apple. He decided to sell Pixar to Disney.

During the sale of Pixar, Steve Jobs had only one condition: At Pixar, they don’t even touch the smallest detail.

By agreeing to this requirement, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger not only disrupted Pixar’s operation but also culture and way of doing business He wanted to transfer it to Disney Animation Studios.

In this way, Pixar’s executives both Pixar and Disney Animation They taught Disney a new form of animation.

The result of this collaboration frozenbecame Disney’s blockbuster masterpiece.

This animation adventure begins in the colorful world of Pixar. With the magic touch of Steve Jobs, it turned into one of the largest animated film studios in the world.

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