October 11, 1995: Steve Jobs files the paperwork to float Pixar Animation Studios on the stock market.
A turning point in Jobs’ life, the Pixar initial public offering turns him into a billionaire. But things very nearly don’t turn out so well.
Animated sci-fi short Blush is small, cute and full of heart. And it’s also a gauntlet thrown down to let the competition know Apple TV+ is getting serious about winning awards.
The long-in-the-making story debuted Friday on Apple’s streaming service, and it definitely swerves into Pixar territory — for better or worse.
Apple came up short at Sunday night’s Oscars, losing its Best Animated Feature nomination (for the great animated movie Wolfwalkers) to Pixar’s Soul.
As brilliant as it was (and Cult of Mac‘s resident reviewer hailed it as the best animated flick of the year) Wolfwalkers was very much a long shot. This would have been Apple TV+’s first Oscar. Instead, it was scuppered by Pixar winning its 11th (!!) award in the Best Animated Feature category.
April 25, 1990: Steve Jobs shuts down Pixar’s hardware division (yes, it used to have one!), ending production of the pricey Pixar Image Computer immediately.
Jobs sells the company’s hardware unit to Fremont, California-based imaging company Vicom Systems for a paltry $2 million.
November 29, 1995: Capitalizing on the success of Toy Story, Pixar floats 6.9 million shares on the stock market. The IPO makes Steve Jobs, who owns upward of 80 percent of the company, a billionaire.
After the windfall, one of the first people Jobs calls is his friend Larry Ellison, already a member of the billionaire’s club.
“Hello, Larry?” Jobs tells his friend on the phone. “I made it.”
November 24, 1999: Steve Jobs gets another feather in his cap when Toy Story 2, the sequel to the 1995 Pixar hit, debuts in theaters. It goes on to become the first animated sequel in history to gross more than the original.
While more a piece of Steve Jobs history than Apple history, the release of Toy Story 2 caps a spectacular year for Apple’s CEO.
The Disney+ mobile app is off to a roaring start in Europe and the UK just days after it launched earlier this week.
Third-party app analytics firm App Annie revealed that the Disney+ app has been downloaded over 5 million times on launch day, possibly thanks to millions of residents having to shelter-in-place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ed Catmull and Dr. Pat Hanrahan, who created the 3D computer graphic breakthroughs that led to Pixar, have been awarded this year’s Turing Award, it was announced Wednesday.
The award, which is often called the Nobel Prize of computing, carries a $1 million prize.
Apple TV+ is currently enjoying a rather lengthy spell without competition from Disney+ in Europe. But that’s going to be cut short after Disney today announced it will expand earlier than planned.
Departing Apple board member and Disney CEO, Bob Iger, opened up about his relationship with Steve Jobs in an excerpt from his new book of life lessons coming out next week.
Iger and Jobs became close friends after Disney bought Pixar, making Jobs Disney’s biggest shareholder. According to Iger, he felt that if Jobs were still alive Apple and Disney would have combineded into one company, or at least been very seriously discussed.
