The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 19 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Senra: Jobs called early Pixar his only all-'A-player' company
“There's a famous quote that I read in one of the biographies of Steve Jobs, where he said, the only time he ever saw an entire company of A players was in the early days of Pixar.”
Pixar's Braintrust holds no authority to mandate changes to directors
“The brain trust has no authority. The director does not have to follow any of the specific suggestions given. The brain trust notes are intended to bring the true causes of a problem to the surface, not to demand a specific remedy.”
George Lucas Threatened to Fire Pixar Team Over $35 Million Divorce
“George was cash strapped from a thirty-five million divorce settlement and was threatening to fire the division's entire team if no buyer emerged.”
Steve Jobs Learned Never to Overplay His Hand From IBM Deal
“Years later, he confided in Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull That he had learned a lesson from the collapse of the IBM deal. Never overplay your hand.”
Steve Jobs Stayed Out of Story Decisions at Pixar
“At Apple, he had the reputation of being deeply involved in the most minute details of every product, but at Pixar, he didn't believe that his instincts were better than the people here, so he stayed out.”
Senra: Disney acquisition made Steve Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder
“Steve Jobs was the single largest shareholder in Pixar. And after this deal, another interesting fact was that that made Steve Jobs the single largest individual shareholder in Disney.”
Senra: Steve Jobs became a billionaire from Pixar, not Apple
“Steve Jobs was, this actually is the first thing that makes Steve Jobs a billionaire. He was a billionaire off of Pixar stock, not Apple stock.”
Senra: Microsoft offered $90 million to buy Pixar
“So they get an offer from, Microsoft's just one of these companies. Steve's like, hey, I want a hundred twenty million for Pixar. And, you know, he just made up the number, and Microsoft will give you ninety million.”
Senra: General Motors backed out of buying Pixar one week before signing
“At the last minute, General Motors comes in, like, ok, we'll take it off your hands, and then one week before that deal was supposed to be signed, they back out, and that deal falls apart”
Senra: Jobs refused to sell Pixar's proprietary technology to Disney
“Steve's, Steve's rejected Jeffrey's logic that since Disney was investing in Pixar's first movie, it deserved to own our technology as well. You're giving us money to make the film, Steve said, not to buy our trade secrets. What we brought here was our technic…”
Disney agreed to a 50/50 profit split with Pixar after Toy Story
“And a few months later, as if on cue, Eisner calls, saying that he wants to renegotiate the deal and keep us as a partner. He accepted Steve's offer of a fifty-fifty split.”
Disney wanted Toy Story 2 direct-to-video for home video profits
“Disney had originally wanted Toy Story II to go straight to video, and they did that not because that's gonna engender the highest quality product. They did that because they were making so much money selling like VHS and I think DVDs at this time.”
Catmull: Steve Jobs tried to sell Pixar three times between 1987 and 1991
“Three times between 1987 and 1991, a fed-up Steve Jobs tried to sell Pixar, and yet despite his frustrations, he could never quite bring himself to part with us.”
Senra: Jobs paid $5M for Lucasfilm division, $5M to fund Pixar
“Steve paid five million dollars to spin Pixar off of Lucasfilm and agreed to invest another five million dollars to fund the company”
Senra: Jobs invested $54M of personal net worth into Pixar
“He puts fifty four million of his own money into this company, and I think at the time, I've heard different estimates, but he had somewhere between like 70 and, I think, 70 and ninety million, so a gigantic chunk”
Pixar originally intended to sell high-end hardware after Jobs acquired it
“When Jobs buys the, we'll get there, but when Jobs buys Pixar from George Lucas after George Lucas is going through a divorce, the idea was like, oh, they're going to sell high-end hardware, right?”
Senra: Lucasfilm shopped Pixar to over 20 prospective buyers before Steve Jobs
“Nobody wants to buy Pixar. They were shopped over 20 prospective buyers, and none of them bit.”