Pixar

In Acquired’s first episode, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal ask why some acquisitions create value for both businesses rather than ending in a write-down. Their opening case is Disney’s 2006 purchase of Pixar. They treat it as more than a conventional technology deal: the central asset combines software, storytelling and an unusually effective entertainment business. The analysis is retrospective from the episode’s 2015 setting, not an assessment of Disney or Pixar today.

The hosts describe a $7.4 billion transaction at roughly 45 times Pixar’s expected annual earnings. They also point to Pixar’s 1995 IPO as evidence that the animation studio had already become an important technology business. Their comparison with Netscape includes an explicitly uncertain recollection of that company’s acquisition price; it should not be read as a verified valuation benchmark.