Roy Disney and Stanley Gold Dismayed, But Not Surprised by Loss of Walt Disney Company’s Relationship With Pixar

As significant shareholders of The Walt Disney Company, we are extremely dismayed, but not surprised by the loss of Disney’s Pixar relationship. More than a year ago, we warned the Disney Board that we believed Michael Eisner was mismanaging the Pixar partnership and expressed our concern that the relationship was in jeopardy. In fact, Roy cited this in his letter of resignations from the Board.

Michael Eisner’s inability to manage and nurture crucial creative relationships, like the one Disney had with Pixar, is one of the main reasons we have maintained that we did not believe Disney’s earnings were sustainable.

Steve Jobs, John Lasseter and their team are enormously talented. Pixar has hit five grand slam home runs in five times at bat for Disney. While we expect that the tail of the relationship will continue to provide short-term earnings gains, the loss of this relationship, we believe, will result in the loss of long-term value for the company and its shareholders.